Ok people it is time you get it once and for all: not everyone will like your perfume of choice so tone it down. Some people are even allergic to ingredients in your perfume, so tone it down. Many people are just sensitive and will get headaches from strong odors, so tone it down.  You may love the smell of your fancy pants perfume, that does not mean it is ok to drench yourself in it. A perfume is meant to be noticeable in close contact, not all the way across a restaurant floor, not two tables down, not so it overpowers the scent of your food (and especially not that of other customers’ food), not so people react immediately when walking into a room where you and your perfume are lingering. A touch, a small whiff, is all you need. Too much perfume is annoying, it is insensitive of the user and it smells. It smells too much. For those allergic and sensitive it smells bad, it causes headaches, and worst case scenario, it can causes a severe allergic reaction. Now you do not want to be responsible for that do you? So tone it down.

Now, I really, really want to tell all those with too much perfume just how annoying they are. How badly it smells. How much it annoys me. Yet I don’t. I suppose I could do it in a nice way, be polite about it. Or I could tell them more matter of factly. More forcefully. Either way, I am pretty sure they will not want to listen, get angry and ignore me. That’s what people do with unsolicited advice, they hate it. Especially advice that they do not care about. Then again, one would think people could differentiate between 1) unsolicited advice that is useless and concerns or/benefits no one but the one giving it 2) unsolicited advice that taken, would actually benefit a shitlload of people and even give the offender a better social standing (not having to stand alone in their putrid, cheap perfume cloud). Of course, people are generally not very concentrated with the well being of others, so I suppose that is wishful thinking.

Those drenching themselves in perfume do so because they already do not care about others, they are already insufferable (smelly) egomaniacs. If they did care, they would have thought about it on their own, they would have paused and given it a thought. I know this, because everyone I have spoken to about perfumes either get it or they don’t. The ones who get it immediately say something along the lines of ‘naturally I try to not use much, I do not want to impose (my perfume) on anyone else’. The ones who don’t get it respond with something like ’Seriously, grow up’, “I can do what I want, get over it’ or ‘it’s a free world’. Yes indeed, it is a free world. Sadly, it is. Perfume may be a small matter (except for those who have trouble breathing, but who’s counting) but small matters grow, they collect over time and all these small matters that people can’t be bothered to be sensitive and considerate about become big matters. Many small maters are what as-holes are made of, selfish, inconsiderate as-holes. So, unless you really like being an inconsiderate as-hole, stop it with the perfume already, think about someone besides yourself. It really is not that difficult. It won’t even hurt.

How much do you need to live well? How much stuff? How much money? Do you really, when you think about it, have time to work so much just so you can get all that stuff? Do you need more money?

A new designer clock, a new computer, new coffee grinder, new car, new skies, new clothes, new toys, new, new, new. Do you need it? Do you even really want it?

Working eight hours a day is the norm. Wight hours every day, five days a week minimum. Add to that overtime, putting in those extra hours so your boss will value you even more, so she will see just what a busy little worker bee you are. And what do you work with? What is it that you spend all this time on? For what? For whom? Why? Is it worth it? Is it worth never getting that time back? Never ever being able to chose to spend it differently? Time is fleeting, sparse, and once it is gone, it is gone. So is it worth it? Are you valued? Are you valuing the time spent working? For real, or just for show? Do you just value feeling important? Running, stressed, to meetings, flashing your Rolex, in your new suit: or is what you do really meaningful? For whom?

Ask yourself; is it worth all that work, so you can buy all that stuff? Is it worth exchanging all that time for that bit of money? Or is there some other way you would rather spend your time, your life? Think about it. Question the status quo. Don’t just accept that this is the way the world works. Yes, everyone has jobs, 40 hours a week. Everyone is tired, few find real meaning at work, everyone works, everyone lives this way, everyone has stuff, needs more stuff. This is how it works, life. Everyone does it. Well, you are not everyone. Stop and question things. What do you want?