Chocolate and I had an intimate liaison late last night, at the foot of the fridge. I am not happy about it, and I am sure my son will notice the block he bought is no longer quite as substantial as before. I shall of course look as ignorant as he does when I remind him of the jobs he has promised to do or ask who left the bathroom door open so the puppy could have a great time with the toilet rolls. And then again I really do like chocolate. Chocolate pleases me, makes me happy and asks for naught in return…but unfortunately chocolate also aids the flabby and this will just not do, it feels like betrayal…

Naturally, we humans are indulgent though, but what level of indulgence becomes unreasonable and self inflictive and what is ok….what level is necessary to make this worldly journey pleasurable, if of course it is meant to be pleasurable and if it is not then why why why!!! Buddhists I believe would question my attachment to the concept of indulgence let alone the indulgences themselves, but if indulgences equal your happiness then isn’t non-attachment for a Buddhist an indulgence? Christians in past tradition, have taken the word’ Indulgence ‘ and given it a God given meaning….an indulgence has been something a person could acquire as part of an effort to eliminate or lessen temporal punishments for their sins. In fact the sale of indulgences (yes you could acquire them by giving the church money…hmmm) was one of the things which incited Martin Luther to begin his efforts at reformation. But that is another story!
Hedonism posits that the principal ethic to uphold is the maximizing of pleasure and minimizing of pain. But what if pain is pleasure? Or what if the pleasure leads to pain?
Gandhi said, ‘Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.” Is eating chocolate mindless self indulgence or is it achievement of happiness and proof of the value I place on dietary satisfaction……That is one of my values…eating well, some might argue what well is of course….
So you see it is a quandary I find myself in…and indulgence might not be my whole philosophy but a measure of finding happiness is…and isn’t the variableness of this complex…I can just hear my daughter say that staying home and not attending school brings her happiness so why cant this exercise be proof of her loyalty to the achievement of her values…and then, what do I say……it’s as well she doesn’t care for philosophy and is not likely to take a big interest in Gandhi, just yet!!!

Bye bye