Buying a Kate Spade was always a dream for me until I finally got lucky and managed getting one, last year for a price that was too good to be true. A gorgeous, plummish burgundy cross body with the emblem of Kate Spade, New York carved in gold. Be it their bags, shoes, jewellery or accessories, they were tastefully designed to grab attention, just as it did mine. Strolling by the Kate Spade stores in Dubai, I couldn’t help but gawk at the elegant designs, muted colours of the bags which somehow always stood out amongst the clutter and made a statement.
Learning of the most celebrated brand icon’s demise yesterday was not only shocking but also was utterly disturbing when it was revealed that she had committed suicide at 55. Could anyone think of someone as successful as Kate Spade – a notable entrepreneur in fashion – taking away her own life? However, the one thing that sparks in your mind is the downside of being so popular. Your internal demons and how you choose to battle with them alone. Your suffering becomes your own and you can’t tell what exactly your life is really like from the inside as opposed to how others view it.
Depression and anxiety are real; they are mental disorders that people are ashamed of admitting to and prefer suffering silently without being judged by others. In this age of technology, we often feel we’re connected with people living miles apart from us, but does that connection heal us mentally? Perhaps not. It only distances us more. We are too busy focusing on the ostensible than taking care of the things that actually matter and that doesn’t necessarily make us happy. People. How often are we physically present as opposed to the messages we often exchange with them? Given the demanding schedules of our life, we often indulge in such things than making a real effort of being there. Of treating people as things and becoming insolent to real feelings.
It’s time to sit back and think a little of where we are headed. As human beings, what should and shouldn’t matter in the great scheme of things. Before it’s too late for us to go back and mend what’s already broken.
