May 18, 2011

  • IMPECCABLE

     

    The name of my first image consulting enterprise in the 1980s was “Impeccable Images”. I got the idea from the teachings of a woman who talked - impeccably - about the subject without walking the walk.

     Soon after, I dropped the label because - think about it - how intimidating! Who can attain, much less maintain, flawlessness? 

    ALL THE SPRAY IN A MALL WON’T HELP HAIR IN A RAGING STORM. 

    NOTHING SHORT OF DESTRUCTION CAN SHATTER A MANNEQUIN’S SERENE PLASTIC EXTERIOR AND CUTTING EDGE WARDROBE. 

    EXCEPT TIME, AGE AND OBSOLESCENCE!

    Impeccability implies: “look but don’t touch”

     Media marketing is targeted to provoke envy, dissatisfaction, even self-loathing with its promise of perfection with the purchase of a “magic” power or product. 

    Unfortunately, life cannot be staged, rewritten or air-brushed. No gym, regime or pill can stave off entropy, one definition of which is “the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity.” 

    OH SHUCKS! - SO WHAT’S THE USE OF TRYING?
     

    Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus! 

    Projecting a pleasing presentation can produce: 

     Smiles on the faces of an audience. 

    A shift in the energy of a hostile room. 

    Encouragement to a passerby. 

    There’s something comforting in the idea of pleasure contained in impermanence, of order inherent in chaos, of improvement no matter how fleeting. 

    Builders of sand castles, creators of ice sculptures, manufacturers of birthday balloons know this. 

    LIFE IS LIMITLESS EVER-CHANGING POTENTIAL 


    Museums are archives of history, frozen until entropy inevitably takes over.     

    Humans also eventually die and decay. Legacies testify to personal impermanence though benefits of contributions may endure for centuries. 

    Even the Roman Empire, the Mayas and Atlantis are but echoes and imprints. 

    Sublime art, literature and music enrich and delight generations – but what of the symphony of the spheres? Celestial music welcomed the supreme creation of the universe and will endure throughout eternity. 

     

    WHAT IF THAT WERE TRUE OF MANKIND’S SPIRIT?