Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Here's a thing that works for me


Time to take a break from cranky blogger items. Mainly because I am not a cranky person. I mean, I have my issues and I sometimes rant and fulminate against a world gone mad – but mainly I’m a pretty mellow and good-humored guy.

Sure we live in a world gone mad. Everybody that’s been around since the beginning of time has lived in a world gone mad. In some realms the old planet gets better, and in others it gets worse. Therefore, we must arm ourselves against the vicissitudes of life by arming ourselves against them as best we can. The best way we can do this is by indulging in ‘particular pleasures.’

“Booze, broads or the Bible,” whatever gets you through the night, Sinatra was once purported to have said. He lived by that maxim, so I have read, but he still died (his huge talent notwithstanding) an ill-tempered, alcoholic old sonofabitch, so maybe he wasn’t really with the program.

By particular pleasures, what I mean is something more innocent, and less demanding. I am looking towards a simple thing that succeeds in the manner of balm in the manner of which Hamlet saw blessed sleep as a thing that “knits up the ravelled sleave of care,” (sic) – no, nobody knows what in hell that really means, or what a ‘sleave’ is, for that matter, but it sounds comforting and that’s what counts.

So, I think all who are relatively sane, have some relatively harmless items or practices that work to dispel the demons and blue-meanies in our lives. It may be reading a good book or the Bible; it may be making sweet and gentle love; it may be hugging a friend or spouse; it may be a good family meal; it may be a day on the slopes skiing; or it may be just a time of quiet meditation.

For me it’s a bath. I don’t mean just any old bath. I mean a bath in our big Jacuzzi tub. The selling point in buying our house a decade ago was that it had a large and commodious ensuite Jacuzzi. This opened up a world of all sorts of titillating possibilities a deux, but it also offered what is to me the ultimate of balm.

Every time I’ve been away for a few days, as I just have been, one of my first thoughts on the way home is that I can indulge in a ‘big bath.’ I can run the water, and then turn on the jets and then utterly luxuriate. I wash, of course, and shampoo, but mainly I just luxuriate I do this once a week. Most of the time I shower. Showers are quick and efficient and I like feeling the hot water coursing down my tan, lean and studly torso – ha! But seriously, showers are efficient and to-the-point. Jacuzzis aren’t. They are indulgence. A good Jacuzzi sets the world right for me, not only during the time I’m within, but for a considerable time afterwards. Of course, if my wife wants to shower after I’ve Jacuzzi’d, then she has to wait because I’ve used all the water. Oh well, a bit of self-indulgence is part of what a ‘particular pleasure’ is about.

What’s your particular pleasure?


10 Comments:

Blogger Marie-Hélène Raletz said...

I love reading in bed... does that count? :)

8:53 AM  
Blogger Tai said...

I have so many! But most of them involve a book.
Having a dinner out with a good book, and a nice glass of wine is one of my treasured indulgences.

I love digging in the dirt sometimes, too...mucking about with flowers, watching things grow and bloom.

There's something to be said about a long walk in the woods, too.
(Seal Bay Park is one of my favorite woodland strolls.

8:54 AM  
Blogger Janice Thomson said...

I'm with you all the way on this one Ian...a bath is especially soothing after a long day in the garden or a frantic day in the big city etc etc...like Tai, a walk in the woods is right up there with a bath and if it happens to have a creek...well there you go, back to water again LOL

10:01 AM  
Blogger Wendy C. said...

I love my hot tub!!!
After a long and stressful day, there is no better way to set my "reset" button when I get home!

And Happy Valentine's Day to you too my friend :-)

11:17 AM  
Blogger Big Brother said...

In summer, sitting on the top of a mountain above the tree line with the wind blowing across the alpine meadow,the sun in my face, absolutely no sound besides the wind, knowing that nobody is around for 20 km in any direction. Always do that when school lets out in June.
In winter, it is cross-country skiing across new fallen snow, with just the scrretching of my skis on the snow. Right temperature, right snow, right wax... closest thing to flying that I know of. ;o)

3:20 PM  
Blogger heiresschild said...

sometimes just being in my own home, away from the world. sometimes good music or a good movie to curl up to. i'm a shower person, but said just the other day that i'm going to start soaking in a nice bubble bath (sorry, no jacuzzi or hot tub yet!) at least once a week, surrounded by candles and whatever else.

3:23 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

wcurling up and reading a good book until i fall asleep

playing w/ my dog

a nice meal w/ a friend

watching an old favorite moving

a good nap

4:33 PM  
Blogger heiresschild said...

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY Ian to you and your wife.

sylvia

2:59 AM  
Blogger Jazz said...

I have more than one, and like Tai most involve books. Nevertheless:

- A good book, a cup of tea, a fire in the fireplace at the cottage.

- Sitting on the balcony with a glass of wine.

- Watching the birds in the feeders

- Snuggling with Mr. Jazz

- Collage - which somehow centres me when I'm feeling out of sorts.

7:16 AM  
Blogger Darjean said...

Ah, you strike a chord. At this time of the year when the days are frigid and I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark, there are two highlights of my day. I get up an extra half hour so that I can luxuriate in my hot tub (-28 plus a wind chill this morning)with a steaming cup of coffee. Evenings are even better with a glass of wine. And that's what gets me through the winter...

7:55 PM  

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