A Place for Pleasure

There would be little point in living a simple life if there were no pleasure in it. I think pleasure is an important aspect of being alive, and I am speaking here of pleasure in the sense of the intimate connection we have to people, places and things around us—a small dinner party with friends, a glass of really good red wine, the smell of poplar trees in the spring, laughter. 

I want to make a distinction, however, between the deep pleasures I have just mentioned and the more superficial variety, such as the thrill people sometimes experience when shopping, engaging in casual sex with a stranger, or getting completely drunk or high—these, in my opinion, are facsimiles of pleasure at best.

I do not mean to moralize here. Sex can be a deeply pleasurable experience, no contest. All I mean to say is that a deeply felt sense of pleasure cannot be derived from a superficial, relatively thoughtless engagement with life. 

The moments that have provided me with sustenance are always the ones where I was intimately connected and alive to what was happening around me—starting my dance badge in ice skating, swimming naked in a small beautiful river, brushing my hand over a lavender plant and smelling the intoxicating aroma of fresh lavender, downhill skiing. 

I believe that these moments have the power to nurture and sustain us, to the degree that we are awake and alive to them. That is why a minimal, but nonetheless, elegant life is important to me. I have time to be present to all the richness of life around me. 

Pleasure requires an immersion in life, a savouring of experience. It is present to the degree that we cultivate intimacy with all the people, places and things that surround us. It requires taking one’s time, going slowly and being sensitive to the way things feel, the way they speak to us and leave impressions. I believe it is as essential to life as breathing. There would be no point to life without these moments. 

We often exaggerate the importance of status, money and the acquisition of material goods, and they, consequently, end up taking over our lives. We treat pleasure like it is a luxury item, subordinating it to all the aforementioned. I think this is a tragedy and greatly misses the point in being alive at all. 

Pleasure wants us to be open and receptive, warm and inviting in orientation to life. It wants us to dig in and have a good time!

Make a place for pleasure. Your life in the most meaningful sense depends on it.