Inactivist

I drink way too much coffee. But I can’t not drink too much coffee. I’ve heard more than a cup a day will increase your risk of stomach cancer by like threefold. I drink two to four cups a day in a normal week. I think daily momentary pleasures are worth paying for later. The line must be drawn when your momentary pleasures begin to undermine your quality of life. That’s the time you need to start thinking about cutting back or quitting. Cigarettes are beautiful. Beer is a great gift from our ancestors. We’re lucky we found coffee. As much as I disdain the white man’s crimes in the annals of imperialism, I’m glad that the British Empire began the process of elevating coffee to ubiquity. Our society wouldn’t function as well without it, if at all. What’s the point of living if you can’t accept and enjoy the things that are slowly killing you? Life is just a very slow and lengthy death. Losing sight of that fact is foolish. I don’t think everyone should try so hard to protract their slow deaths and make them even slower. So many myths, legends, and even works of literature, have touched on the dangers and pitfalls of immortality, but it’s still something that humans seem to innately strive towards. Reign in your self-preservation instinct, be irresponsible. I’d rather be dead at 40 than be wishing I were dead at 80.

I’m not trying to espouse hedonism. I’m not trying to say there aren’t people who can’t live until 90 and still be enjoying life. But humans have a great capacity to delude themselves (perhaps that’s what I’m doing with this entire entry). I just don’t see the joy in living as a frail old man who can hardly get around or take care of himself. The point is that these are the best years of our lives, we may as well use them the best way we can. We should not waste nor fritter (though I often do), but utilize and enjoy as much as possible. Be productive and industrious, build a legacy to leave behind once you kick the bucket. Work hard but don’t lose yourself or forget to enjoy life. Love as much as you can, get your heart broken and cry your eyes out. For these are all the best things we can do, and anyone who says otherwise is a misguided fool. Ayn Rand, eat your heart out.

To me a cigarette is food. Now that may be a baffling concept to people in San Francisco who have this theory that they will live forever if they stamp out tobacco smoke, and find this a little bit difficult to deal with but, I live my life eating these things and drinking this black water in this cup.

-Frank Zappa