I was watching TV this morning (Saturday). I know, I know, that’s many times a waste of time, especially on Saturday. Nevertheless, I was taking in I Love Lucy and a commercial came on. Normally, I don’t watch them to a great extent as I have what I need, and if I don’t, I go down to the local store and get it. This commercial, however, caught my eye.
They were selling ped-eggs. Now, if you have never seen one, just think for a minute what these gadgets might be good for, knowing only the name of the product. OK, I’ll just tell you. These little marvels somehow scrape off the dead skin from the bottom of your feet in order to make them “smooth and silky”. Now, before you tell me that I’m “tetched in the head”, let me finish.
The commercial was a classic. One young woman raved on and on about these things and closed out by saying, “I’ve just got to have one!” One scene showed five people of various genders and ages all sitting in the same room shaving off the bottom of their feet, then opening up these egg gadgets and dumping out all the dead skin in piles, evidently showing the usefulness of the thing. And, of course, there was the proverbial “But Wait!! That’s not all!!” phrase following the announcement that one of these cost only $10. Turns out that you can obtain two at that price (one for each hand…foot...) and some kind of cream that is supposed to make your feet more attractive.
OK. I have a couple of questions. Why would anyone be that interested in dead skin on the soles of one’s feet? If there is a legitimate answer to that question, why would anyone want to engage in that kind of personal care in a room with four or five other people? And why, for heaven’s sake, would those people dump their dead skin in piles in order to compare success? Of course, the greatest question is why anyone would think that they just had to have something like this?
Am I wrong, or are there more important things in this world that we need to be thinking about, working on, and spending our money on? Am I being too serious here, or is there a case to be made that some folks are just so full of themselves that they have to have the silkiest foot soles in town?
This is making me more nauseated the more I think about it. What started off as being something funny and asinine has become, in my mind, something that has grown into a “This is what’s wrong with this world,” kind of thing. But that isn’t even right. What’s wrong with the world isn’t the fact that someone somewhere knows there are people gullible enough to send him $10 (plus shipping and handling) and their name and address for a plastic egg-like thingy that shaves off dead skin. (By the way, the names and addresses are sold on mailing lists many, many times over, making more money for the shysters than the profits from the sale of the product.)
No, what’s wrong with the world happened in a certain Garden over in the East many, many centuries ago. The human race has futilely trying to cope with that ever since. One of these days, we’ll all know that only One Man has ever successfully won that battle. And He won it for us all.
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