I think greed is something we possess when we come out of the womb. We want what we want...if we're hungry, we want to be fed; if we're tired we want to be lulled to sleep; if we're sitting in a dirty diaper, we cry until our bottom is clean. A 3 month old doesn't sit with a growling tummy and think to itself, "Oh, mom's doing laundry because I vomited all over myself and her earlier, so I'll just sit here and amuse myself until she has time to tend to me." It never works that way. It's part of a heirarchy of personality phases that we go through and the first one is called the id. It's the stage in life where everything is about you and you want everything for yourself. Sure, you're basic needs are met but it's at the expense of everyone around you. Sadly, some people never grow out of this phase. Greed in many ways is like the id phase of our personality development.
I look at toddlers, only children and brats who haven't learned how to share. It's perfectly normal to be possessive of your possessions but it's up to parents to teach the children when to let things go and not be a toy hog. When I see a greedy adult it often makes me wonder what kind of upbringing they had. Were they wealthy, used to getting everything they wanted, never had to share and just brought these traits straight into adulthood? Were they poor, had to fight for everything they had, defending their no-name "Barbey" from a sibling that just wanted to rip her head off and carried this form of survival into grown-up land? It could be a plethera of things but one thing is for certain, greed is not a flattering characteristic even if Michael Douglas said it was in Wall Street.
I'm definately guilty of greed. Especially when it comes to beer, DVD's and well, really anything. There's a reason I buy my stuff and it's so it will be there when I need it. I don't want to have to go looking for my possessions only to realize I've loaned them to a someone who has not returned it. Ugh, that makes me crazy. And why do I feel guilty asking for it back? It's my stuff. I paid for it. I took the time out of my schedule to go buy it but for the life of me, I hate to ask for it back because I feel like I'm being a greedy ass. It's quite a conundrum. I'm trying to work through it, though but it's not looking good.
As for putting a positive spin on greed, well, that's a hard one. This may be the one deadly sin that I can't see a bright side in because there's nothing appealing about it. So to greed I say, well played. You have greedily kept anything good about you to yourself and not shared the tiniest sliver of hope that there's a ray of sunshine in you.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
7 Deadly Sins...Gluttony
Ahhhh, gluttony. One of the sins that's the most fun. The dictionary defines gluttony as excessive eating and drinking so that must make me an expert on this particular sin. I don't think that it ends with eating and drinking, though. You can be a glutton with anything that's done in excess. We've all heard the phrase, "glutton for punishment" which basically means, "stop doing stupid things that get you in trouble or you're going to keep getting the same negative results." Here's the way I look at it, if you're taking in too much stuff, whether it be food, drink, repercussions from bad decisions, sex, whatever it is that you can't seem to get enough of, you're a glutton.
In another era, gluttons were the rich because they ate alot due to the fact that they were the only ones that could afford food and they had a tendency to be on the hefty side. Being large and in charge was a sign of wealth. Today, that's not the case. Look around your neighborhood Wal-Mart and you'll see lots of poor fat people in moo moo's or ill-fitting stretch pants and Crocs. Thanks to value meals and super sizing, anyone from any economic class can be a glutton.
I've tried to think of a way to put a positive spin on gluttony and it still hasn't come to me even as I'm typing this right now. Maybe by the end it will dawn on me as to how excess can be good. I have looked at my life and what I partake in a little more than I should and naturally, libations come into play. It's no secret that I'm a drinker. I drank last night...way too much as a matter of fact but I like to drink, it helps me relax and it keeps me from losing my mind and quite possibly stops me from killing someone. There it is!!! The positive aspect of my gluttony. I'm keeping myself from murdering someone, going to jail and being a burden on the tax payers of this once great nation. I knew it would come to me and you're welcome, America. Anyway, I often to drink to the point of drunkenness. I'm not going to sit here and lie and say, "Oh, I just have a drink or two to ease the stress." No, I can kill a 12 pack without thinking about it. It's not something I'm proud of but it's a fact of life and being that I'm a woman, it's a bit of a gift. I know that if there ever comes a day when I settle down and have kids, 12 packs will be a part of my past and I'll turn to Lexipro but for now, Michelob Ultra is one of my BFF's.
I mentioned food and sex earlier as examples of things that can make us gluttonous. We live in Mississippi, one of the fattest states in the nation and when I look around Picayune and hear all the rumors of bed hopping I realize that we are all gluttons in some way, shape or form. In the world we live in now, everyone does what feels good, to hell with the repercussions. Whether it be eating too much sushi at Osaka, drinking too much at the bar then going home with some random person because you're feeling a little naughty, these are all gluttonous activities. I'm just spit balling here, I'm not admitting that I've done any of the aforementioned things so don't jump to conclusions. What I am saying is this, we learn from the mistakes we make and maybe if we are doing something a little too often that we shouldn't be doing, it can be a learning experience for us. Often times, being a "glutton for punishment" can be a good thing if the end result is that you stop making idiotic decisions. So there you have it...I've done my best to shine a positive light on gluttony, a deadly sin where even the word sounds gross. Next week, GREED. Can't you just envision that old time villain twirling his mustache with a woman tied to a train track but I digress.
Much Love,
Nickie
In another era, gluttons were the rich because they ate alot due to the fact that they were the only ones that could afford food and they had a tendency to be on the hefty side. Being large and in charge was a sign of wealth. Today, that's not the case. Look around your neighborhood Wal-Mart and you'll see lots of poor fat people in moo moo's or ill-fitting stretch pants and Crocs. Thanks to value meals and super sizing, anyone from any economic class can be a glutton.
I've tried to think of a way to put a positive spin on gluttony and it still hasn't come to me even as I'm typing this right now. Maybe by the end it will dawn on me as to how excess can be good. I have looked at my life and what I partake in a little more than I should and naturally, libations come into play. It's no secret that I'm a drinker. I drank last night...way too much as a matter of fact but I like to drink, it helps me relax and it keeps me from losing my mind and quite possibly stops me from killing someone. There it is!!! The positive aspect of my gluttony. I'm keeping myself from murdering someone, going to jail and being a burden on the tax payers of this once great nation. I knew it would come to me and you're welcome, America. Anyway, I often to drink to the point of drunkenness. I'm not going to sit here and lie and say, "Oh, I just have a drink or two to ease the stress." No, I can kill a 12 pack without thinking about it. It's not something I'm proud of but it's a fact of life and being that I'm a woman, it's a bit of a gift. I know that if there ever comes a day when I settle down and have kids, 12 packs will be a part of my past and I'll turn to Lexipro but for now, Michelob Ultra is one of my BFF's.
I mentioned food and sex earlier as examples of things that can make us gluttonous. We live in Mississippi, one of the fattest states in the nation and when I look around Picayune and hear all the rumors of bed hopping I realize that we are all gluttons in some way, shape or form. In the world we live in now, everyone does what feels good, to hell with the repercussions. Whether it be eating too much sushi at Osaka, drinking too much at the bar then going home with some random person because you're feeling a little naughty, these are all gluttonous activities. I'm just spit balling here, I'm not admitting that I've done any of the aforementioned things so don't jump to conclusions. What I am saying is this, we learn from the mistakes we make and maybe if we are doing something a little too often that we shouldn't be doing, it can be a learning experience for us. Often times, being a "glutton for punishment" can be a good thing if the end result is that you stop making idiotic decisions. So there you have it...I've done my best to shine a positive light on gluttony, a deadly sin where even the word sounds gross. Next week, GREED. Can't you just envision that old time villain twirling his mustache with a woman tied to a train track but I digress.
Much Love,
Nickie
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
7 Deadly Sins...Lust
I know that I usually write about something that has caught my attention and I've somehow found it interesting or have seen the humor in an otherwise bleak experience. It's what I do as a liver of life. I love to make people laugh and hopefully they're laughing with me and not at me but either way, I got a laugh. Today, I'm going to explore things that are a little more on the dark side. Now, don't get me wrong, I haven't gone the way of Darth Vader. No black mask with perverted prank caller breathing patterns and I don't have that cool music that would play whenever he was walking the halls of the Death Star. I would REALLY like that music to play when I entered a room but I digress. I'm going to take some time to explore the Seven Deadly Sins and how they are present in my life whether being practiced by me or those around me. In Picayune, I could sling a dead cat and find someone committing one of them at anytime of the day but more on that later. I'd also like to put a different spin on these sins and maybe they could possibly be looked at in another light...maybe. The Seven Deadly Sins are as follow...lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and the worst according to all the websites I looked at, pride.
This first rambling will be on lust. Lust can be defined as a craving for the pleasures of the flesh. That just sounds sexy and lusty, doesn't it? Apparently, it's not a good thing. Well, none of them are or they wouldn't be deadly sins now would they? Lust can be a noun or a verb. You could have an insatiable "lust" for someone or you could be "lusting" after someone which immediately gives me mental images of a person panting and wiping the sweat from their brow and saying, "Whooo, is it hot in here or is it just me?" Used to be, it was just men that put their lustful feelings/intentions out there for all the world to see. It was just their nature but now the ladies have stepped up to the plate and taken things to a whole different level. With the increase in plastic surgery and hair extensions, women are able to flaunt parts of their bodies that make a man's eyes do that thing like cartoon dogs whose eyes pop out of their heads on a slinky wire. I'm not gonna sit here and blow smoke up your behind and tell you I haven't put the girls on display with the hopes of getting a little flirting action or a free drink. Who hasn't done that? I'm also not gonna tell you that I went to the movie Burlesque this past weekend and didn't leave the theater telling my friend that I wanted to lick the guy's abs that had the lead role. If you're a straight woman, you would've said the same. Unfreakingbelievable this guy, but again, I digress. :) These are all examples of lust, whether it be using it to your advantage to cut down on your bar bill or offering to clean a man's stomach with your tongue.
I don't think that I hurt anyone with these things that I've done but a sin is a sin is a sin is a sin. One is no worse than the other. The Bible says, "Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:28). Again, with times changing we can substitute woman for man because women are holding their own in this category of Deadly Sins. I ask myself sometimes, can we really help it if we find someone attractive? It's in our genetic make-up to seek out a mate (as long as they're not married to someone) and make babies and die together. As long as we don't act on every urge that we have, is lust such a bad thing? I've had many dreams that prove quite the contrary. The real downer is when you wake up and realize the dream wasn't real.
I'm not trying to question the logic behind the 7 Deadly Sins, I know that they're bad, but sometimes you can shine a light on an otherwise negative subject. What if we looked at lust like this...say there's this really rich shy guy whose only interaction with women comes from the strip club that he frequents because he's such a crippled introvert. Now let's say there's a down-on-her-luck "exotic dancer" who's only working there to pay the bills in this tough economy but what she really wants to do is take care of a man and stay home with their brood of kids (don't get mad at me women's libber's, if I could stay home with a baby, I would too). She offers him a lap dance, for a small fee of course, and they begin to talk. She breaks the cardinal rule of not going out with patrons and has dinner with him. They hit it off, there's fireworks, they get married in Vegas and the rest is history. Now isn't that a lovely story of how two people, one using her body in lustful ways to make a living and one frequenting a place of ill repute because that's the closest he's going to get to a woman? See? You really can put a positive spin on something that has notoriously been given a bad wrap.
This first rambling will be on lust. Lust can be defined as a craving for the pleasures of the flesh. That just sounds sexy and lusty, doesn't it? Apparently, it's not a good thing. Well, none of them are or they wouldn't be deadly sins now would they? Lust can be a noun or a verb. You could have an insatiable "lust" for someone or you could be "lusting" after someone which immediately gives me mental images of a person panting and wiping the sweat from their brow and saying, "Whooo, is it hot in here or is it just me?" Used to be, it was just men that put their lustful feelings/intentions out there for all the world to see. It was just their nature but now the ladies have stepped up to the plate and taken things to a whole different level. With the increase in plastic surgery and hair extensions, women are able to flaunt parts of their bodies that make a man's eyes do that thing like cartoon dogs whose eyes pop out of their heads on a slinky wire. I'm not gonna sit here and blow smoke up your behind and tell you I haven't put the girls on display with the hopes of getting a little flirting action or a free drink. Who hasn't done that? I'm also not gonna tell you that I went to the movie Burlesque this past weekend and didn't leave the theater telling my friend that I wanted to lick the guy's abs that had the lead role. If you're a straight woman, you would've said the same. Unfreakingbelievable this guy, but again, I digress. :) These are all examples of lust, whether it be using it to your advantage to cut down on your bar bill or offering to clean a man's stomach with your tongue.
I don't think that I hurt anyone with these things that I've done but a sin is a sin is a sin is a sin. One is no worse than the other. The Bible says, "Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:28). Again, with times changing we can substitute woman for man because women are holding their own in this category of Deadly Sins. I ask myself sometimes, can we really help it if we find someone attractive? It's in our genetic make-up to seek out a mate (as long as they're not married to someone) and make babies and die together. As long as we don't act on every urge that we have, is lust such a bad thing? I've had many dreams that prove quite the contrary. The real downer is when you wake up and realize the dream wasn't real.
I'm not trying to question the logic behind the 7 Deadly Sins, I know that they're bad, but sometimes you can shine a light on an otherwise negative subject. What if we looked at lust like this...say there's this really rich shy guy whose only interaction with women comes from the strip club that he frequents because he's such a crippled introvert. Now let's say there's a down-on-her-luck "exotic dancer" who's only working there to pay the bills in this tough economy but what she really wants to do is take care of a man and stay home with their brood of kids (don't get mad at me women's libber's, if I could stay home with a baby, I would too). She offers him a lap dance, for a small fee of course, and they begin to talk. She breaks the cardinal rule of not going out with patrons and has dinner with him. They hit it off, there's fireworks, they get married in Vegas and the rest is history. Now isn't that a lovely story of how two people, one using her body in lustful ways to make a living and one frequenting a place of ill repute because that's the closest he's going to get to a woman? See? You really can put a positive spin on something that has notoriously been given a bad wrap.
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