A strange thing seems to be happening to one of my friends. 

I won’t say which, and I may not actually tell her about this – If she does read this, whether immediately, down the line, or otherwise, I would be happy, but I won’t count on it. 

She is a very physically beautiful person. 

I don’t just mean that in a matter of subjective opinion on my part, by the way. 

I mean that she is actually able to make a living with her beauty, not necessarily in a “wow” or “crazy” way, but I could say this: Helen of Troy had a face that could launch a thousand ships. In my friend’s case, you could say that she has a face that could launch a thousand sponsorships. 

Recently, though, it seems to me that things are getting to her head, as I see from the captions coming out in quick succession that show or reflect a pattern of thinking that is tending towards what may be a form of neurosis – and I know this because I have experienced it before. 

Perhaps you know what it means to be a narcissist. The word itself comes from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, but you wouldn’t have needed to read that to know that it means being self-absorbed, but at the same time, being self-absorbed to a point of peril.

Narcissus was an excessively beautiful young man, and he, like many other people, was seeking love. Somehow, though, he could not find that love until one day he gazed into a lake and saw his reflection, at which point he fell in love with his own image. In gazing at it, that love deepened, even as that of those around him escaped his attention for the remainder of his brief life, which concluded as he fell into the pond and drowned in a desperate attempt to embrace himself. 

I feel no ill will towards my friend or any negative feelings, but somehow, it feels to me that the path she is going on is not a good one. 

I hope I am wrong.

It is a little awkward to raise it now, though, so I will just leave this as a blog post alongside a simple Malay proverb: “Siapa yang makan cili, dia yang rasa pedas.”