But It Can Take You a Long Way! (A Perspective – Part 1)
Since I’m on a necessity-based writing break (but nothing bad!), I’ve touched up a “Perspective” piece that I wrote last year for a different purpose.
I hope you’ll like the premise. I do!
I really enjoy reading Anna and Daniel, The Flourishing Hedonists, on Medium.com.
I love their attitudes towards life and sex, and although I will quote some specific passages below, I am also linking to their entire piece, here. Please seek them out, especially if you subscribe to Medium!
Here’s the original Anna and Daniel article: Where’s The Joy, Where’s The Pleasure?
All the words in the quoted section below are theirs, from the above article, with a big thanks to Anna and Daniel, The Flourishing Hedonists for allowing me to quote them…
When I originally read these words, it was like they were reading my mind, and I made a beeline for the keyboard. I pasted them here as fast as I could, and I hope they inspire you, too.
Please enjoy.
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“However, being the hedonist I am and speaking from my experiences, I suggest that one major problem is the lack of pleasure that people allow themselves to have. And if they do happen to have a feel-good experience, the guilt that follows can almost be debilitating.”
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“And the thing is, deep down every generation wants freedom. And they want to experience that freedom sexually.”
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“This feeling of guilt and shame that has permeated all of society is killing people. I suggest that deep down most of us–male and female–want to be free. We would love to have the freedom to experience many different and exciting things including sex!”
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“For instance, the French love pleasure and at the same time have a much higher life expectancy rate than the United States. They love sex and often have multiple partners outside of marriage, yet they have a much lower divorce rate than the U.S. They understand that a good marriage is when couples are life-partners and allow each other to have freedom and fun–not possess each other.”
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“When pleasure is your main aim in life you will begin to remove yourself from things that don’t feel good. You will also concern yourself less with what others think about the things that you find pleasurable.
Feeling good matters.
Life is supposed to be fun, yet humans have been taught forever–usually by those in power–that pleasure is sinful– you must sacrifice, struggle and if you do something that feels good then you must feel bad about it.”
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“Suppressing a natural and beautiful desire such as sex leads to unhealthy results and it is gradually sucking the life out of everyone.
So, for the sake of yourself and all of society, let’s all loosen up and fuck more.”
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So yes, I agree with them, that choosing happiness (including via hedonism) isn’t a perfect proposition when facing real life… but it can give you a huge head start!
Thank you Anna and Daniel, for such inspiring words! You can follow them here:
The Flourishing Hedonists – Medium