Why do I think I'm not vain? Well, it's what unvanity is all about. Keep reading my blog and I will teach you to be unvain. Some of my posts will be philosophical, such as this one, and others will be about my personal conquest to be unvain as a blogger, amateur model, husband, son, and brother. And hell, some of them will be just downright silly.
Ok, so let's start at the beginning. Wiktionary has three definitions of vain:
- overly proud of oneself, especially when concerning appearance
- having very little substance
- pointless, futile
Let's look at each definition and think about the opposite of it to understand unvain.
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1) Overly Proud of Oneself, Especially When Concerning Appearance
This is the most common definition that you think of for vain. This is the kind of vain that others accuse me of. It's a tricky one because it's entirely subjective. How much is the right about of pride in oneself? How does one know when he's crossed the line? Can I love myself as a whole without others thinking I'm overly proud of my appearance?
Vanity is in the eye of the beholder. I consider myself to be the right amount of proud. I understand my abilities including my weaknesses. I happy with what I've achieved in my life and don't overstate my accomplishments. I enjoy posing for the camera because it's fun, not because I'm obsessed with my own looks. Should I be more shy to maximize my unvanity? I hope not.
2) Having Very Little Substance
Unvanity is about maximizing substance even in spite of appearance. Those who optimize for optics are vain. Those who make their exteriors more interesting than their interiors are vain. Those that measure success in dollars and cents are vain.
This blog is about building substance. It's about looking past the thin facade of yourself that others see and looking deep into the real you: your values, your abilities and your accomplishments. Focus your energy on inspecting and improving those aspects of your life and you will be able to find pure, unvain happiness.
3) Pointless, Futile
This blog has a purpose because of that it's unvain. See, it's a play on words; a circular definition of sorts. My point is to teach you about unvanity. It's to help you project the correct image--the one that demonstrates who you are and not what you look like you are.
4 comments:
I find this to be a fascinating topic. Growing up in the midwest and living in some of the nicer parts of Columbus (Believe it or not...C-Bus is a very white-collar "service industry-based" city (Retailers, Insurance Companies, and Banks are all headquartered within this slice of Americana), which caters to a great deal of narcissistic people that live beyond their means and care too much about appearances (cars, clothes, etc.).
When you get to the root behavior of a great deal of these people after years of working or interacting with them in social settings, they are often more terrified about mundane details of their life than true life experiences (climbing a mountain and just sitting at the top in silence and tking it all in)or just sitting back and enjoying the moment with a group of friends (not everyone is lucky to have a good group of friends). That is one of the reasons that I enjoy this area a great deal. While there will always be a great number of people that contribute the vanity epidemic, this area caters to those that are comfortable with their appearance (from Bellingham Hippy to Belltown Metro) and are willing to express themselves with minimal scrutiny.
I like the blog...keep up the good writing and we'll keep reading.
You both scare me.
where do I go to suggest future topics for unvain.com? I have received crystal clear directions I am only to suggest future poignant topics for unvain within the site itself but I'm not clear on exactly where I should do this.
Anonymous - please read this post to learn about how you can suggest topics for future posts: http://unvain.blogspot.com/2008/08/suggestions-welcome-too.html
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