A couple of weeks ago, Ray (my hubby) and I were out walking and we were walking past a fairly typical nice, newish two story home. The type of home that can be found in any of the new suburbs here on the Gold Coast. It had a lovely solid wall along the front boundary that was probably 5 foot high. On top of the pillars that were spaced every 10 feet or so was a pyramid shaped cap that looked to be made from concrete – very nice! However as we walked along we noticed that one of these caps was chipped on the corner and inside of the rough textured concrete looking coating, we could see it was in fact made from – polystyrene!

We were amazed, but not really surprised as we have seen houses being built with footings laid on polystyrene slabs, and Ray’s brother in law had a brand new home built in NZ, that we realised had polystyrene pillars on the outside! We’ve also come across homes that have plastic corners on the outside which are then rendered over (to make it easier for the ‘tradesman’ doing the rendering) until the lawn mower bumps them and breaks the plastic strip!

It would seem that our society doesn’t have too much concern for what’s inside these days – for real substance and the ability to last the distance. As long as it looks like it’s doing the job, looks attractive, appears sound and healthy then that’s all that matters.

We see everywhere people treating their bodies and their lives the same way. As long as they think they look young, attractive, healthy, happy, wealthy, there is no thought for what’s really going on inside. Cover it over and just keep up the appearances!

These days we have much of our female population with fake nails, fake boobs, fake tans, fake hair (extensions etc), botoxed faces that don’t move, plastic surgery to fix, correct, tuck and change. And now the men are starting also with the waxing, fake tans and all the plastic surgery etc. Our society is becoming a race of fake people trying to fit some image that doesn’t exist.

The problem with this is that no thought is given to the inside of the body, or to the mind and the spirit – the things that matter. The fake bits most of the time don’t look real and we all see through them if truth be told. The fake bits don’t add to real beauty. Real beauty comes from within, in glowing skin, clear eyes, a healthy smile, healthy hair and a healthy spirit.

I’m currently working in a job where I phone about 250-300 people a day – cold calling – and I come across people every day who are sick, people in who’s voices I can hear the physical and emotional pain they are in, people going through chemotherapy for cancer, people who have just lost their partner to disease, people who are nursing a loved one who is ill or dying, people who are suffering.

I find it hard to listen to at times and extremely sad because I know that most of it is unnecessary. I see that more people like myself are looking for answers and it’s education and truth that’s needed – for truth to be told (whether we want to hear it or not) and for our society to get on track with the things that matter – to get back to what’s real and what counts. To learn how to be healthy and happy and take responsibility for our lives. To get rid of the fake and seek out what’s real. To do something that has meaning. To learn how to live well, to love unconditionally and to be happy both with ourselves and our lives.