Ebony's Pearls

First Strawberries
Originally uploaded by nodigio

Every now and then a meme comes along asking to spill on your “guilty pleasures”, either as a question in a longer meme or as the whole meme itself.

And yanno? I never did understand the “guilty pleasures” bit. If I enjoy something, I enjoy it; openly, happily, and preferably with friends. I may feel a bit guilty about a mess in my house because I’m too lazy to clean it up (a fault of which I am frequently guilty), or about not getting something done in a timely manner because people depend upon me to do things. That’s a good reason to feel guilty. But to feel guilty over something I enjoy that harms no one? No, I just don’t see it.

I am a person who has a lot of pleasures. I like writing. All kinds of writing, even the techy stuff I complain about. It’s words, yanno? I write blogs, and stories, and how-to’s, and manuals, and instruction guides, and power point presentations, and speeches, and tweets, and poems, and haiku, and anything I can. I read them all, too. In that writing workshop, Ms. Griffin asked us what was on our bookshelves at home, and honestly, the only under-represented category was math. Even then, I had half a dozen good math books. I have well over 20,000 volumes excluding sets of encyclopedias. Yes, that’s right – sets, plural. I’m not ashamed or guilty about my book pleasures, either. I read as voraciously as I write.

I like food. I like buying it, growing it, cooking it, preserving it, gifting it to others. All kinds of food from all kinds of cultures. I indulge by buying specialty tools I can use to cook most anything. I’m bound to have something edible no one has heard of in my pantry and I encourage people to graze wherever we go – new greenbriar vine tips, wild violets, cattails, sumac berries, cornflowers, sour grass… Real food is everywhere and it’s all good, and I’m not feeling the least bit guilty about enjoying it.

I like cutesy stuff – Cute Overload, I Can Haz Cheezburger, Hello Kitty, Disney stuff, Looney Tunes stuff, smileys, sunsets, weird buildings, weird shaped foods, art, sculpture, whatever. I don’t necessarily buy it, but I enjoy it and I’m not feeling the least bit guilty about gawking like a tourist, ‘cause you know what? I am a tourist in this world and it’s all wonderful and amazing and thrilling and awesome and terrific. I’m here on an extended tour and I refuse to feel the least bit guilty about mingling with the natives, dancing, eating, playing games, talking in many different languages, and immersing myself as deeply as I can in everything. The bad as well as the good, because you don’t get a complete picture if you block out the unsavory bits and the shady side of things. I want to experience it all, so I guess it’s not just the cutesy stuff, it’s everything!

I like bubble baths and showering in waterfalls, and feeding ducks. I adore finding a new plant popping up and appreciate the mature leaves after the bloom has faded and anticipate the seeds and corms and bulbs.

I like people – not so much en masse, crowds can be painful as they step on your feet, elbow you in the shoulder or neck, cut your view off, and so on, but in small groups and one-on-one, I like people. OK, maybe not stupid drivers like the guy who made a right turn across 2 lanes of traffic at a red light because he could or the guy who caused our accident last January because he selfishly didn’t want to wait for traffic to give him a clear opening for that left turn. But mostly, I like people.

I indulge in all kinds of sensory things, and mentally stimulating things, and yes, I will talk religion and politics, and I am famous for my talanoa (in very small circles).

I do not feel guilty about my magazine subscriptions or purchases, my hobbies, my favorite activities or foods or people or critters or anything. It’s all to be cherished and embraced and celebrated. Guilt is for disappointing others, not for enjoying living.