SENSATIONS
Posted by Erik Frey Mon, 23 Feb 2004 05:32:00 GMT
i’m sitting here, watching a bit of fine sediment fall to the bottom of my wine glass.
how do i resolve such simple, acute luxury with a weekend like this last one?
when we got off the mountain, we stopped at el paragua in espanola, and spent close to 150 bucks on plate after plate of food. we were seven dirty, smelly guys sitting at a table cracking lewd jokes and inhaling enchiladas to make up for 3 days of gorp and soup.
and the hostess was a cute girl who was wearing just a hint of some kind of perfume. normally you might not even notice, but we were all acclimated to pine, dirt, and body odor. the perfume had us nearly toppling. we couldn’t resolve in our heads that such a good smell could exist. it was like a clint eastwood movie, where the first thing he does upon riding into town is buy a bottle of whiskey and fuck a woman.
civilization has brought us to great heights of stimulating the senses. you might say that the ultimate direction of our combined effort is to cradle the nadirs of physical pain, and amplify the peaks of physical pleasure. calling that ‘quality of life’ is such an absurd misnomer.
i admit, sometimes i feel a little like tom hanks, flicking a lighter on and off.
when you artificially treat those peaks and valleys, you desensitize and sensitize in the wrong directions. colors become less saturated – lines become less sharp. before you know it, you have kids killing themselves because buffy got cancelled.
the problem i have with ascetics is they never get laid. the problem i have with the pious is they never sin. they have a sterile approach to life.
screwing, getting drunk, failing, struggling, bleeding, and all that other stuff.
my favorite saint has always been st. augustine, because he was such a fuckup. but they still loved him in the end, didn’t they?