Pleasure for Thought

I was reading some literature on obesity today and the question came to me: Why do people eat so much. At first, the question may stun people. Eating is a natural process in which the body receives energy. This is how it has been done for years. But really. If one can gain all the energy it needs by simply eating, why then do people eat more than they need?

I found the answer in asking this question to myself: I eat a lot because it tastes good. That's it. food tastes good. Food can bring out sensations and emotions that can be matched by no other action. This is partly the reason for restaurants: people want to experience something that they can not make for themselves.

It is these sensations that give us pleasure. If they were not pleasureful sensations, people would not eat, they would find ulterior motives to gain energy. So now can see that people eat because they find pleasure form it. Still, why do people eat so much? obviously, they gain a lot of pleasure from it. In fact, they gain so much that they are not able to bring themselves to stop until their body tells them to do so by giving the command "I AM FULL!!!"

From there the person stops eating and then is so full, he/she finds themselves incapacitated for the next half hour. So from that train of thought, people eat so much because they lack self control. They are so happy and content with the food they are experiencing, that they don't want it to stop. Only when they are physically incapable of eating more do they finish.

Now this is not true of all over eaters. Nor is this true as to why people are obese. Everyone's body is different (or at least that's what I learned in kindergarten) and so different things happen. Lack of control is only one reason as to why people often overeat. I myself am guilty of overeating. The true test is how you deal with it.

So next time you think "Dude. I'm sooo hungry right now. I want some food", what you're really saying is "Dude. I want to feel good." Feeling good means finding pleasure. And that is something we all want: to find pleasure.

Kids These Days

I recently got back from the coast on a football camp trip. There I saw the best and worst of man. but still, there was one thing that bugged me: how can there be people in this world who seem to lack the common sense that to most is inherent in our nature? This question recently came around when i was reminiscing about this trip.

I found myself in a beautiful setting, a high school located not 100 yards away from the beach, with probably one of the most relaxing climates one could ask for. Mind you, there was a constant breeze that often picked up, but still, compared to the 110 degree weather at home in Redding, this was paradise. Yet, despite this bliss that all of of were enjoying, some not-so-smart young men decided to screw up the last night for all. The last night that was supposed to be a night of laughs and good times, was quickly turned into a night of blame and high anger and tempers.

Throughout all of this, things calmed down, but no one felt as though the night went the way it was supposed to. here lies the root of the first question: a group of individuals felt they had the right to screw up the final night of a trip that, up until then, had been going so smoothly. From what I could gather, there were no complaints so far about the trip, except this.

This behavior/viewpoint is one I see in most of the piers of this group of boys. They think that because they are where they are in life, they have certain rights and privileges. These are the same rights and privileges that people of my generation earned. So what makes this group of kids so special?... The truth: nothing. In fact, this generation does not deserve these privileges because they are not able to earn them.

Their past experiences and consequence ending in "That's ok, you're too young to deserve that punishment" has created a mentality amongst the generation that they do not require punishment for their actions, not because they are too young anymore, but because they are a special group of individuals. And because of that, they have not learned the same rules of society that the older generations have. This creates a problem, one that is severe and alarming: this generation is rapidly entering society, yet does not know how to properly function in it. The rest of us in society are having to deal with the screw-ups and miss haps that this younger generation keeps on doing.

So... Is society doomed? Maybe. One can only hope that the rules of society will kick in to this younger generation and spawn a "Great Awakening" in them that will instill a common sense in them that we all seem to already have.

So in response to my initial question, I guess I must answer with this: it was never there to begin with. These people were told right form wrong, but were never fully taught it. Will they learn the rules of society, eventually. Will it be easy for them, no. But one thing is for sure, it will be equally as hard for the rest of us.