As summer finally arrives in Seattle, my thoughts are less on writing and more on vacation. After the hecticness of this school year, all I want to do is sit motionless by a large body of water and stare into the distance. Summer feels like a natural time to downshift productivity and focus more on pleasure. I’m hearing about more and more companies that are offering “summer Fridays,” which feels pretty damn overdue. Do you know that whole countries shut down in Europe for the month of August. A MONTH!
But we Americans must make do with what we have. For me, that means writing AND taking care of my kids. While I don’t have to teach or deal with school-year obligations, Summer often feels less like a break and more like introducing a whole different set of challenges. Still, I want to fight for less work and more play this summer. By the time you read this, I will be on a California road trip with my husband and two kids. (Hopefully we’re all still alive and on speaking terms, ho ho!)
Taking inspiration from Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights, I want to challenge myself to notice one thing that brings me pleasure every day. I want to reclaim that word, which often feels connected with things wrong or impure. To be honest, when I hear the word, “pleasure” in my mind, it’s often in the Eastern Washington accent of a former theology professor who pronounced it “PLAY-sure” and talked about “God’s PLAY-sure” in a totally neutral way that, nonetheless, kinda squicked me out.
In America we use moralistic language to describe nearly everything, even things like food. Consuming kale is “eating clean” while chocolate cake is described as “junk food,” “devil’s food.” Eating such food is frequently excused with language like “I’m being naughty.” It’s as if we’re meant to feel guilty for experiencing pleasure. And the way that suffering (especially women’s suffering) is valorized in the church, maybe we are.
But let’s not suffer and sacrifice this summer. Let’s use all of our senses to experience pleasure. In the words of Kurt Vonnegut, “I urge you to please notice when you are happy and exclaim or murmur or think at some point ‘If this isn’t nice I don’t know what is.’”
I’ll be posting about the things that bring me pleasure on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, along with longer posts, book reviews, and interviews about pleasure for the months of July and August. I invite you to share, either here or on social media, what is bringing you pleasure. Sharing ideas can help us wake up and notice the little pleasures we often take for granted, as well as seek new pleasures.
Journal/Discussion Questions:
What associations do you have with the word ‘pleasure’?
How could you spend more time experiencing pleasure this summer?
Tips and tricks for surviving 18 hours of driving with argumentative tweens?