Examing Life’s Lessons

What philosophy are you currently working with in life? Some of you can answer that readily, others of you may need to chew on it a little bit. I find most times I just live it, piece by piece as it comes to me. I have found that many people give no thought to how the should live life. Get what you can and keep your nose clean so to speak. Their lives seem to go like the following paragraph.

A sperm and egg got together around nine months before your birthday. Some of you let your mother know about your personality before you left the womb. You breathed air for the first time. You learned what the boundaries were by doing first and discovering the consequences afterwards. You grasped the language of your parents and then learned the boundaries of what you could repeat. You learned what you needed to do and/or say to get what you wanted. Whether it was attention or some toy. This continued until you decided to no longer rely on your parents to directly support you in life. Some of you broke the “umbilical cord” in your teens, some of you have not and are still relying on your parents will into life.

Somewhere during this time, you learned what was “right” and what was “wrong”. This came in the form of what to do or not do to not get yelled at, have something taken away or in general avoid pain and strife. If you were fortunate, this was consistent as well as flexible as you progressed from a one year old to an eighteen year old.

Now back to the question, “What philosophy are you currently working with in life?”. If you have not given much thought to this question, then the odds of you being in a reactive mode of living is pretty high. Your philosophy is to survive by doing enough of what you have to do so you can get what you need to eat, sleep and pursue pleasurable activities. You have a flavor of the philosophy, “If it feels good, do it”. Now this does not necessarily mean that just because it feels good you will do it. My point is, this is the guide you use to make decisions. With this philosophy, if something brings you pleasure, then it is ok to pursue it.

What is wrong with finding those things that bring you pleasure and pursuing it? The pursuit of happiness is supposed to be one of our inalienable rights according to the writer of the United States Declaration of Independence. Some might make a distinction between happiness and pleasure, but I feel it is splitting hairs for the moment.

How else are you supposed to find happiness except to find those things that bring you pleasure or makes you feel good? I hear taking drugs, getting drunk, getting married, having children, owning a home, running your own business, multiple sex partners, living frugally, being a vegan, being a vegetarian, voting are all things that make you feel good. Yet, some of these activities have long term consequences that I am not so sure is beneficial for long term pleasure.

What if a guy, a male, were to lock themselves in a room. Food was arranged to be brought in on a daily basis of whatever he wished to eat. He then had all the time he wished to masturbate in privacy. Would this be an acceptable way to pursue pleasure?

What if he were looking a child pornography, would that still be ok? He is not hurting anyone. Now why would I bring that up as a rational to support this being ok to do? Does it matter if our actions affect others? Why should we care as long as what we are doing brings us pleasure? Now what if his getting excited about cartoon drawings of children? Would that change your opinion?

I digress.

Pursuing your own pleasure is tempered by how it affects others. The less you care about how it affects others, the more the label “selfish” applies to you. Yet, we all pursue those things that bring us pleasure. We should be asking ourselves, does that pleasure last long enough to justify the efforts it takes to attain it?