Have you ever wondered why we sometimes refuse to admit or share our love of guilty pleasures? Why have we not even acknowledged the guilty pleasure? Why do we have more than just a few guilty pleasures? Are we afraid of what others will think about our guilty pleasures if we share?  Why are they guilty pleasures anyway? Rather than embracing our guilty pleasures on occasion the question to ask is should we spend our time solely in the pursuit of hard work, intellectual pursuits, or pleasing others?

Ponder or give thought to what are your guilty pleasures? You do not say them out loud. What would your guilty pleasures include? Romance novels; Sports; surreptitiously watching your favorite soap opera, drama or comedy; are you a closet vampire lover; Team Damon or Team Edward?  Do you play Wii or Nintendo late at night when no one can notice our thrill of playing Call of Duty or God of War III or Super Mario Galaxy?

You might ask why these thoughts and why I am sharing my thoughts with the universe. I have given the subject much thought and my writing admittedly is a mechanism of procrastination because I find pleasure in writing. Quite frankly, I am procrastinating on a couple of projects that are due next week (end of the semester); besides writing I have enjoyed several other of my guilty pleasures.  You might ask what are evesgreenleaf’s guilty pleasures. Should I share?  Or should I only hint? Rather than completely sharing.

Maybe the bigger question is why do we classify any pleasure as a guilty pleasure or rather, why should we feel guilt about pleasure?  Why do we feel bad or allow others to make us feel bad when we select pleasurable activities over the popular myth that seeking pleasure is bad?  I think this is why when studying philosophy I enjoyed reading philosophers from the school of hedonism.  Common held thought by the generally puritanical society thinks that seeking pleasure is bad but is it really? Or do we need to check our paradigm?  Hedonistic philosophers through the time have varied definitions of what the true pursuit of pleasure entails.  But they all seem in agreement that seeking pleasure is not only about the pleasure but also includes the avoidance of pain. Is pleasure only physical or can it be mental or even spiritual?

Food for thought!

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