Is there such a thing as a truly selfless
act? I have asked myself this question
many times over and have found that I can argue both sides eloquently,
efficiently and tooth ‘n nail. Yes, I admit,
if you could all tune into hear the voices in my head, even just for a few
moments, you would be highly entertained.
As with most Sunday’s, I spent this past one laminated to my couch
stroking my hangover and feeding my pickled brain with a hefty slice of reality
TV. The program of choice was a recap on
the first year of married life of the Royal darlings – Will and Kate. I lost an hour of my life watching their
toothy grins shake hands and kiss babies from all sorts of walks of life. I learned about all their different
philanthropic endeavors and commitments to human rights, what’s more, I learned
that LK Bennett pumps do indeed a Princess make.
Yet while various different media moguls were lauding this pair as the
new Mother Theresa duplicated and incarnate I had to wonder – are they really
partaking in these charitable enterprises for no other reason than the good of
mankind or is it because their beady eyed publicist in the background has told
them to do so?
The same could be said for so
many celebrities. Now don’t get me
wrong, I think Angelina Jolie looks great in the myriad of different Muslim
veils we’ve seen her in – not least because they cover her husband-stealing
face – and I applaud her for saving the children of so many fallen
countries. But it’s hard to be convinced
that these acts of kindness, which we are all encouraged to support, are
completely genuine when there’s a camera capturing their every stunning angle.
But then again, for us lay
people, the same could also be true. I strive
to be a good person. I genuinely want to
be a beacon of angelic-like virtuity with a high moral fiber that people enjoy being
around - and if I can do so while looking like Heidi Klum above, so be it. I’ve often benevolently given to
numerous Goodwill Stores (yet, I’ve always managed to get a copy of the tax
receipt). I helped an old lady across
the street recently (but, I told everybody about it). I raised money for the Leukemia &
Lymphoma Society (in exchange for being trained for a marathon – go team!). So at the end of the day, is an act ever truly
selfless if you are getting something out of it?
Indeed, often my Catholic guilt
gets the better of me when I over-analyze these situations and I contemplate
ways in which I can better my soul. I’m
guessing Katie Holmes is on the same search for morality (in a Scientologist
kind of a way) as she is now teaming up with Tommy Hilfiger to launch a new
charity collection this Spring. The
Promise Collection will support the Millennium Development Goal which is dedicated
to halving poverty by 2015.
Ever the Doubting Thomas, my
suspicious little mind is of course calculating Katie Holmes’ gain from this
but, when I saw the bold color palettes and animal prints this collection has
to offer God dammnit – who cares!!! My wallet
is on a perpetual diet in order to afford whatever I deem as my most desireable
duds so if there’s the opportunity for me to get a little fashion soup for the
soul while I’m doing so why the hell not?!
So perhaps such thing as a selfless act does not exist but I guess as long as nobody gets hurt in the way.....who am I to pass judgement? And on that note, pass me my credit card bill - I need to figure out how much of Katie's collection I can afford.......all in the name of solving world poverty, of course......;)
