Androgyny...

There is nothing soothing about Shokubutsu's Lavender & Rosewood. Marketed as "soothing"body foam, i felt more disconcerted than soothed when i used it. Unable to find my usual Oat and Shea Butter, the adventurous decided to try something different. "Can't be that bad," thought I, the one much accustomed to Shokubutsu's other body foams.
First thought when i first used it: eeekkks, that smells like the cologne my colleague uses, only twenty times stronger. (Just think how some people pour the whole bottle of cologne on themselves.) Oh gosh, oh gosh. I smell like a man. I reek of masculinity! Even Dynamo smells better.
So how can i be soothed with so much dissonance?
Man? Not really, but smells like one.
Woman? Looks like one, but doesn't smell like one.
Hmmm, maybe it should be marketed as the "androgynous" body foam. And i can't help thinking of Shania Twain's song, "Man, I Feel like a Woman", but only the converse.

Declaration of Independence...

of oneself, that is.
It's been often said that one needs to be independent. If not, the people around you will feel burdened by you. To put it succinctly, you'll be a leech who sucks the life out of people.
What has been lesser said -- but which i think is equally important, if not more -- is how one needs to give people the ability to be independent, by not giving too much to the people around them. In our society, it seems that people view the act of giving as something saintly, something sacred.
Something they need to do to validate their selves as worthwhile beings who have no qualms about making sacrifices for the people around them. Or something they need to do to make themselves feel good.
It is easy to confuse the act of giving as loving someone.
Personally, i think this act of giving, when taken too far, becomes a burden to the people around them too. Especially when they know they'll be unable to reciprocate just as much. When this act is taken too far, it also creates a sense of laziness in people, creating a need in them to want to depend on that giving, selfless you.
This is the hotbed that breeds laziness and dependency in people. In a way, it becomes a power play in which one dominates over the other because the latter is simply too weak to not depend on the giver anymore because he keeps receiving.
This, to me, is one of the most dangerous form of love because these people's actions -- ostensibly driven by that universal language of care and concern -- are simply crippling.
I think there's a reason why most of us come into this world alone. There's also a reason why most of us leave this world alone: to give people the lifelong chance to practise the art of independence, from the beginning, to the end.