Pleasure Treasure, A Large Measure

Thumbing my way through a recently purchased paperback of non-fiction, I have received a small yet potent dose of Epicureanism and liked the taste of it. Now you, dear reader, being an intelligent and wonderful person who has accidentally stumbled across this blog in error or possibly pity, would immediately identify this as a philosophy of an ancient Greek called Epicurus. Yes, your such a smart bunny.

Essentially, what I'm talking about here is the issue of happiness and pleasure and the importance these have in our lives. I'm always amazed at how difficult we make it for ourselves in attaining these delights, when really it's there for the taking. I've been dreadfully guilty of this, to the point where feelings of shame and embarrassment are the result of indulgence in fairly simple pleasures. How ridiculous! Where did this come from? Consider:

- If you eat that you will get fat and it will rot your teeth.
- You can't wear that, it doesn't suit you.
- This is no time for laughter.
- Sex is for making babies only.

I'm sure at some stage, some do-gooding swine instilled some of these awful ideals into society. A pox on them. The Irish comedian Dylan Moran summed things up rather well:

"You have to have a good relationship with pleasure"

I particularly like the use of the word relationship in his phrase. Just like the emotional connections that are made with family, friends, and lovers, so to does one need to embrace pleasure and be at peace with it. Biologically, the human animal is hardwired with pleasure as part of the firmware and to ignore it, suppress it, abuse it, or hate it is not the way it was designed. Moran assists us further with a suggestion:

"...to lay face down on a large cushion, with a mouth full of chocolate, and something wonderful happening to my lower half"

Well, it's a suggestion anyways, and can be adapted to individual tastes.

The other thing that needs to be sorted out if happiness must be achieved is an appreciation of the self. Again, I have spent years worrying about my body image, intelligence, and perception to others. As time goes on, the realisation that you've got what you've got becomes more evident and again it's something you just have to make peace with. Now, I absolutely adore mocking myself, playfully denigrating my abilities and attributes. I think it's healthy, I really do. The reality is though that even though my confidence is not 100%, it gets better all the time. Some of the things that worried me are now accepted as part of the package. It must be made clear that it is not a display of defiance to change, but instead a refusal to allow stupid and petty hangups distract from the things that make life worth living.

Now, what did I do with that cushion and chocolate?