little observation: man is the sum of his appetites

it's very late at night, so i'm keeping this brief. I meant to write this observation a few weeks ago after reading a very depressing NYT magazine article about the 'sleep industry' but i let the opportunity pass. So rather than attacking specifics, i'm going to take a pretty broad swipe.

everyone in the entire western, industrialized, abstracted world would be a whole hell of a lot happier if we all agreed that the 'simple pleasures in life' - the ones that have basically been around since the dawn of our species, the ones that anyone in the world could point out - are not means to a more significant end. eat because it's nice and satisfying and feels good; sleep and have sex and drink and listen to music and read and walk and all the other things for their own sake.

if you're only doing these things out of a sense of duty or expectation or routine or because your doctor told you to (or told you not to, or told you you had to do such-and-such but mustn't do so-and-so) you're missing the point.

i'm sure this all has been said far more elegantly by someone far smarter than i am, but it seems like, culturally, we're really losing our way. i worry especially about my own generation - values seem to be shifting so fast.

god, doesn't this all make me sound like a complete reactionary?

i'm going to sleep - i promise a recipe or something soon.