What hobby or pastime of yours can evoke a bit of old fashioned guilt?
The time I spend with my principal hobbies - music, reading, film - is guilt-free, provided I'm not neglecting something or someone that needs my attention. Same thing for cycling and tennis, two of my main forms of exercise.
Now skiing can be a different story. I love nearly everything about it - being outdoors on crisp winter days, the way my legs burn as I plow downhill, the exhilarating speed. Yet the butchering of mountains at ski resorts has given my environmental side some pause. I've never considered quitting; the pleasure trumps the guilt. But I have fantasized more than once about being a confident and competent enough skiier to not need the resorts at all. My fantasy joins me with the people who get dropped into a virgin wilderness and simply ski down from there.
Not long ago, snide remarks about the despoiling effects of golf courses passed these snarky skiier lips. Looking at another carved up mountain recently, I had an image of a glass house and some golfers nearby - their white balls looked a lot like stones.
About Me
- Pat Barton
- My most recent single release - "My True North" - is now available on Bandcamp. Open my profile and click on "audio clip".
There are so many places where pleasure trumps guilt - Choosing a fresh pineapple even though we try to eat local, turning on the gas fireplace and burning up the fossil fuel just to enhance the ambiance of the room, driving to the hairdresser when I could have gotten up 20 minutes earlier and walked there. It's sort of like trying to stay on a diet - what would life be if we didn't eat chocolate cake once in a while? My goal is to make as many good choices as I can while still enjoying the pleasures that make life worth living.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right my dear; thanks for reminding me.
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