Frydmania

Duty v Pleasure

This weekend was a good one for reading things I could nod along with, or better.

Kate Muir took potshots at modern coffee houses no longer being places for debate and politicking, but being more about a load of hot milk.  (I had been thinking of writing something about feeling excluded from seasonal Starbuck products because they all seem to be latte-based.  Kate redressed the balance with reference to thick black coffee in the earlier cafes that started the trend for heated beverages being a viable alternative.)

Even better though was the article on duty versus pleasure.  Now I can see you rolling your eyes already at this.  But in terms of ’someone’s thinking like me’, it was a good one to read. 

Basic concept: previous philosophers have suggested that we have to choose between duty and pleasure.  Various others, church fathers included, have rushed in after to agree that we must choose. In fact, let us say, many say there isn’t even a choice, becasue we know what we should do. 

The struggle is that duty alone gets wearing.  We know that ‘all work and no play…’ but it gets harder to hold to that when work moves ever faster. 

The church has also had something of a struggle with pleasure as a concept, certainly in its early days.  ‘The devil finds tasks for idle hands’ will certainly keep you in homemade socks, if you take its precept literally while at home of an evening.  In fact, I’m sure I can claim I got the laptop in order to keep my hands busy while watching television, but that does stray dangerously close to pleasure too…

Anyway, thankfully the writer, philosopher A C Grayling, confirms that the best option for us all is a mix of the two.  Which sounds very simple and obvious, I know.  But as someone who’s felt that following duty is the way to please people, and God, it’s a newer prospect to stray towards little things like going home on time - or early. 

Thing is, when you start looking out for pleasure, you find that God’s provided plenty of that too.  You know that I can rhapsodise for ages on the delights of food alone.  Add in sunsets, birdsong, smiles of friends, those kind of things, there are lots of gentle pleasures tucked away behind all that duty.  They even allow you to enter work with a smile on your face.  And duty gets a lot better when you enjoy it too… 

Add comment November 19th, 2007

Rainbows from above

Everyone likes a good rainbow eh?  Double ones good value too and all that.

Coming back from our recent holiday, we had a new sight - a rainbow from above.  You are basically talking a stripy donut shape, but it’s still exciting.  Even better - we got to see two different ones, about half an hour apart.

Maybe this is God’s view of rainbows?  I guess you’d have to be a fairly high flying bird to get that view too often. 

I know the thing is meant to be the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow, if you can ever work out which end it’s at.  But all the same, the treat was seeing something you are used to, but from a completely different angle.

Admittedly, there’s less time to go through the whole ‘red and yellow and pink and green…’ shtick when you’re flying over.  Which is just as well for the other passengers.

But it’s probably a good example of some of what I treasure in life - getting to see, or think about, or hear, something in a completely new way.  Second in line is finding out someone else has seen that, heard that, thought that too.  More on that next post.

Add comment November 19th, 2007