We didn’t have shampoo, conditioners, sun screen, shower gel, moisturizers, shaving cream or any other so called beauty products. Yet we were beautiful, happy and healthy. No detergents, fabric softeners or even dryers. No microfibers in our food, water or bodies. We used olive oil soap and loofahs to wash our bodies. The same soap was used for washing the face, hair, clothes, dishes and for shaving. We used natural oils for moisturizing bodies and hair. No harmful chemicals whose names we can’t pronounce, have no idea how they’re prepared and why they are used. We drank tap water, played in the sand, sea, mud and rocks. Tailors and dressmakers made our clothes. If something tore, we used to stitch it. It was the 60s and 70s in Egypt. In the 80s, Egypt switched from socialism to capitalism and the so called economic openness started. We became “modern”, “elite” and “affluent”. We stopped squeezing real oranges and started dissolving Tang in water. We stopped using cloth bags, paper and glass bottles for packaging food and liquids and started using plastic. We stopped getting milk from the woman who had a cow and started buying pasteurized milk cartons. We stopped buying fruits and vegetables from the green grocer, meat from the butcher, eggs from the egg shop, bread from the baker and got it all, conveniently, in the supermarket. We ditched all the natural stuff, that’s for the poor people, and started buying artificial sh!t. A spray for the air, another for the hair, skin, fixtures, walls and cars. A lotion for the hand, another for the feet, body, face, eyes, cuticles…etc. We stopped drinking tap water and started buying plastic bottles. We don’t have time to clean, prepare food or deal with nature. We can afford instant gratification and large spaces which we filled with stuff. The madness kept getting more and more ridiculous and we, in our stupor kept buying into it: More sh!t will make me happier and more beautiful. It didn’t work last time but maybe if I try this new miracle product, it’ll work. Can’t be in nature. The sun will burn me, the water will poison me, the sea is dangerous, the wind will mess up my hair, mud and sand are dirty, vegetables are tasteless. However, chemicals will make me clean, beautiful, classy and modern. Artificial flavors taste good, even if we don’t know what they are…
Do you feel sad reading this? You have a choice. Who will you choose to be?#nature #oldtimes #modernlife #travel #westandinlove
Unconditional Love 