Pleasure Is A Prison

In a world full of good things, chase great things

Last week we meditated on the gift of loneliness. This week, I want to talk about giving up good things in pursuit of great things.

Life is full of wonderful things: delicious food, spectacular wines, scenic views, beautiful people, cool cars, amazing jobs, interesting books, great music, awesome TV shows, and an endless list of other incredible stuff. There are infinite reasons to be thankful if you know how to look.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to fit every wonderful thing we could have into our short lives. That’s the problem with chasing pleasure — we’ll always know we’ve missed out on more pleasures than we’ve experienced. 

Over time, our consumption consumes us. We push ourselves harder so that we can hoard more stuff and have more experiences — but we can never quite afford as much as we want. 

• We want longer vacations in more exotic places

• We want larger, more beautiful homes to slowly die in

• We want food and drink of ever-increasing quality and quantity

• We want to have lots of money and spend lots of money, too

• We want to wrap our bodies in expensive clothes and drive around in fancy cars so people will envy our “success”

Pleasure is a pacifier — and a prison. It traps us in a cycle: chase, consume, chase, consume, chase, consume. Then, it leaves us empty again. 

So how do we break free?

---

Quote of the Week

“Happiness is different from pleasure. Happiness has something to do with struggling, enduring, and accomplishing.” — George Sheehan

---

Focus On The Path, Not The Peak

The soul is a jar, and desire is a hole in the bottom. Tackling worthy challenges fills our life with joy, but we let our joy drain away by focusing on what we don’t yet have and what we haven’t yet experienced. 

When we orient our lives around consumption, we feed our appetites but starve our souls. The result is depression, exhaustion, and anger. 

The key to joy is to find a challenge that matters to you and embrace it with everything you have while letting everything else go. Joy lay on the path, not the peak. 

That means, instead of simply “seeing the world,” do something to make it better. Instead of reading 1000 books, write one good one. Instead of passively watching athletes on TV, become one — and help others to do the same. 

Don’t waste your life doing stuff you hate to pay for items and memories that you can’t take to your grave. 

---

Question of the Week

How can you actively create joy this week, instead of passively consuming pleasure?

---

Algorithms Suck

Did you dig this week’s post? Join the tribe to get every Pressure post delivered directly to your inbox, because algorithms suck, and next week’s article could get buried under shitty memes and booty photos.

---

Explore the Roses from Bones Community

Want free music, merch discounts, and access to the growing Roses from Bones community? Visit rosesfrombones.com to visit the shop, explore the Discord, and stay up to date on the latest Roses from Bones news.