goddessing

cosmology, consciousness, contrariness
goddess religion: pagan blog
www.goddessmystic.com


Pleasure 

Friday, February 03, 2006

Pleasure posted by Sage -- 3:50 AM.
Blogger: Haloscan: . .

Last night, when it was still Imbolc somewhere in the world, the Imbolc Issue of MatriFocus went live. I went to bed both exhausted and jazzed. Though my body is still aching from the requisite excessive time sitting in the chair at the computer doing the inevitable several days' worth of last-minute things, this work is one of my great pleasures.

Pleasure and play recur in my musings on personal cosmology and have taken center stage in my current round of meditations. Doing some research on feminism for the new Feminist Wave Dynamics section of MatriFocus (please check out the call for writers), I came across the following quote from wikipedia's Feminism entry:

In Marilyn French's seminal works analyzing patriarchy and its effects on the world at large--including women, men and children--she defines patriarchy as a system that values power over life, control over pleasure, and dominance over happiness. According to French, "it is not enough either to devise a morality that will allow the human race simply to survive. Survival is an evil when it entails existing in a state of wretchedness. Intrinsic to survival and continuation is felicity, pleasure. Pleasure has been much maligned, diminished by philosophers and conquerors as a value for the timid, the small-minded, the self-indulgent. "Virtue" involves the renunciation of pleasure in the name of some higher purpose, a purpose that involves power (for men) or sacrifice (for women). Pleasure is described as shallow and frivolous in a world of high-minded, serious purpose. But pleasure does not exclude serious pursuits or intentions, indeed, it is found in them, and it is the only real reason for staying alive."


Yes! Campbell and French could be combined: Follow your bliss; it is the only real reason for staying alive.


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