Thursday, March 21, 2013

Guilt-free Pleasures

I don't think I've mentioned, recently, that "Glee" is one of my main guilty pleasures on the TV schedule. Tonight, though, having thoroughly enjoyed their "Guilty Pleasures" episode, I feel almost compelled to talk about it.

It was cool to watch the episode, tonight, and wonder what direction they were going to go in. It was even cooler that I pretty much knew all of the songs they did. Who would have guessed that a bunch of "teenagers" would have listed songs from the 80s as their guilty pleasures? (Sorry... I forgot for a moment there that this is TV, not real life...)

It's strange, though, the way that guilty pleasures change over time. Or maybe it's just strange the way we rank different things as "guilt-able" over time. Frankly, as I think about it, there aren't many pleasures that I have that I feel guilty about.

Okay. I feel a little guilty admitting that - yes - I like to eat spoonfuls of peanut butter dipped directly into the Nestle Quik container. But the storyline on "Glee" also focused on the secret aspects of the characters' guilty pleasures. And since Christopher knows that I like my peanut butter and Quik fixes... well... it's not exactly secret.

These days, instead, my guilty pleasures are things that are pretty much out in the open. Things like the pleasure of getting to and from work without another new noise coming from my car. Or coming to the end of a pay period with actual money still in my checking account (this frequently follows the "no new car noise" idea). Or - this spring - walking the dog in the morning without coming back inside with frostbite.

But I guess they're all really just "pleasures" without so much of the guilt.

Sitting here and pondering it, I almost feel like I should crack open a pint of Ben & Jerry's, snuggle up on the couch, and re-watch the episode - just to make sure I didn't miss anything.

No guilt involved.

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