The Bandwagon is Full

I’m on my high-horse today. Sometimes a small, seemingly inconsequential thing will annoy me to no end. And it’s happening lately. There seems to be a need to grab a popular concept (in this case Feng Shui) and link it to something else, something totally unrelated, or slightly related but not enough to make it valid.

A couple months ago I saw an article about Feng Shui Yoga. I read it with great anticipation that some enlightened connection that hadn’t occurred to me would be brought forth between these two philosophies. I do yoga; I do Feng Shui----it never occurred to me to blend the two. I couldn’t wait to see how this would be done. The author continued to refer to Feng Shui Yoga, continued to build up my expectations about what this might be, but before I knew it, I was at the end of the article. There was never a clear definition of what made it different from regular yoga, or any other kind of yoga for that matter. I was irritated that someone would use the Feng Shui tag to lure readers to their article----the title was effective because I did indeed read the whole thing, but I didn’t like it.

Then a student of mine forwarded a link to a web page for a Feng Shui Beauty package. You could get a Feng Shui haircut, a Feng Shui manicure and pedicure, and a Feng Shui makeup application (all for $205). How the heck does this work? The reader was assured they’d be aligned with the seen and unseen forces of nature if they would come to their salon to experience the art of Feng Shui. Huh?

I was shopping for groceries the other day and bought, out of curiosity, Feng Shui crackers. Maybe they had an Asian flair because there were some flecks of kelp in them, but, gee, does that qualify them to be Feng Shui crackers? What’s next? Feng Shui deodorant? Feng Shui pantyhose? Maybe we wouldn’t feel bad about paying so much for gas if we were using Feng Shui petrol? Where will it end?

Maybe I should change my attitude and look at it another way. Perhaps because Feng Shui is popular, all of these examples are attempts to grab on to some of that popularity. I believe there’s a word for this: entrainment----when one item vibrating in a certain way affects an item positioned next to it causing it to vibrate in the same way. I think there's another word for this: tacky. Well, I’m off to take my Feng Shui car to the Feng Shui mall and look for a pair of white Feng Shui shoes.