Happy Meal for the Soul – the McMeaning of Life
It has been awhile since I’ve written anything because the hunger from fasting has practically diminished my need to rant about anything worth blogging about unless you find me counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds to dinner utterly fascinating. If so, here’s a sample of what I could have been blogging about for the past few days:
Thursday 6th October
11.05 a.m. – 8 hours till I can eat, smoke, drink, think dirty, nasty thoughts.
2.30 p.m. – 4 hours and 35 minutes left. Will sleep and dream of a giant roasted cow and
cigarettes the size of the KL Tower.
6.00 p.m. - 1 hour 5 minutes to go. ME SO HUNGRY. ME SO THIRSTY. ME SO
ANGRY, ME SET YOU ON FIRE. ME SMOKE YOU, MOTHERFUCKER!!
7.05 p.m. – me can break fast now. Me eat, me drink, me smoke. Me happy.
8.00 p.m. – me ate too much. Big cow me swallow. Me feel sick. Me want throw up.
I think I get it, the whole point to the fasting ritual. It’s not about the deprivation of food per se, as in the deprivation of food is not so much an objective as it is a method used to simplify one’s soul and by simplifying one’s soul, it is arguably easier to achieve a state of contentment. Think about it, it all goes back to the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, really in which at the bottom most level, you have your basic needs – food, water, (cigarettes in my case), above it you have your security needs, above that your esteem needs and at the top you have your spiritual needs (Disclaimer: this might not be an accurate description of the Hierarchy of Needs but rather, what I can remember of it from the Psych 101 class I took ages ago). According to Maslow’s theory, when one’s lower level needs aren’t fulfilled, it’s damn well nearly impossible for one to be bothered with one’s higher level needs. In other words, if your stomach’s empty and growling like a lead singer of an angry adolescent band, you’re not going to be torturing yourself with thoughts on the meaning of life.
Pondering the meaning of life is for people who have way too much to eat.
In which case, I wonder whether starving supermodels and fanatical dieters ever give much thought to the meaning of life.
Although I’m not saying that hunger is easy business, it is however, a problem in which there is an obvious and direct solution to, provided one is lucky enough to live in an environment where food is easily attainable. If you’re hungry – you go to the kitchen, you open the fridge, you eat. If you’re hungry, and I mean hungry in the absolute physiological sense and not in the Oprah-I-need-to-fill-the-emotional-void-sense, your only worry is that of food and when exactly are you going to get some. If you’re not hungry, you have all the time and mind space in the world to find yourself worrying about being fat, about how worthy you are of love, about the state of the world, about the nature of time in and how you’re not entirely sure if the past, present and future occurs in a linear pattern or if it occurs simultaneously and if it does then wouldn’t the present be as real as the past and the future in which case would throw the cause and effect theory of history out the window hence there would be no consequences to any sort of action which will lead you to the half assed conclusion that nothing you do matters and if nothing you do matters, what exactly is the meaning of life then? See what I mean? Thoughts derived from higher level needs of Maslow’s hierarchy not only get your panties in a twist, they tangle up your soul and are far more complex, (if not entirely abstract) and often, do not present itself with an obvious, straightforward solution. You can’t walk in to a McDonald’s and buy yourself a McMeaningoflife Burger. You can’t walk into a McDonald’s and buy yourself absolute and spiritual happiness through a Happy Meal (though the marketing execs at McD might beg to differ). You can however eat the Happy Meal as an answer to your physiological hunger. Just don’t eat the little plastic toy that comes with the meal. That’ll just bring you a whole new set of problems.
This is what I mean by simplifying one’s soul through fasting, through voluntarily committing one’s fortunate self to truly feeling hunger and thirst. You go back to basics. Instead of figuring out how to live (or how other people should), which can take you a lifetime to figure out (and when you do, you’re dead), you put yourself in a position where you first, need to figure out how to survive. And there’s an obvious answer to survival – breathe, eat, drink, stay away from things higher up than you in the food chain, procreate.
I guess, that is why I haven’t been blogging for the past few days. In a lot of ways, blogging is my way of fulfilling my esteem needs , where I delude myself into thinking that my thoughts are worthy of being expressed to the international public, that the public is even interested in reading my values and opinions as an individual. But since I’ve been fasting for the past couple of days, experiencing a 12-hour state of hunger, thirst and nicotine withdrawal each day, my lower level basic needs has been left unfulfilled leaving me to feel like my esteem needs can go fuck either itself or my spiritual needs – get me a big plate of rice, a tall glass of juice (with pulp) and a pack of cigarettes and I’ll be happy.
So the next time your soul feels weighed down and convoluted by trying to figure out the deeper significance of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album and other useless, yet entirely worrying vague abstract thoughts regarding the Bigger Picture, try fasting and you’ll be surprised at how limited your range of vision becomes (it’s cold, it’s dark, I see spots).
And if that doesn’t work, try Scientology. Try Kabbalah.
And if that doesn’t work, try joining a cult (apparently, Scientology isn’t a cult). Better yet, try starting your own.
And if that doesn’t work, watch Oprah, watch Dr. Phil.
And if that doesn’t work, try blogging. It really is cathartic.
And if that doesn’t work, who am I to give you advice?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Tu entre todos los seres tienes derecho a verme débil ”
(You among all beings have the right to see me weak).
- El Dano (The Hurt); Pablo Neruda
At least I think that’s what it means
Thursday 6th October
11.05 a.m. – 8 hours till I can eat, smoke, drink, think dirty, nasty thoughts.
2.30 p.m. – 4 hours and 35 minutes left. Will sleep and dream of a giant roasted cow and
cigarettes the size of the KL Tower.
6.00 p.m. - 1 hour 5 minutes to go. ME SO HUNGRY. ME SO THIRSTY. ME SO
ANGRY, ME SET YOU ON FIRE. ME SMOKE YOU, MOTHERFUCKER!!
7.05 p.m. – me can break fast now. Me eat, me drink, me smoke. Me happy.
8.00 p.m. – me ate too much. Big cow me swallow. Me feel sick. Me want throw up.
I think I get it, the whole point to the fasting ritual. It’s not about the deprivation of food per se, as in the deprivation of food is not so much an objective as it is a method used to simplify one’s soul and by simplifying one’s soul, it is arguably easier to achieve a state of contentment. Think about it, it all goes back to the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, really in which at the bottom most level, you have your basic needs – food, water, (cigarettes in my case), above it you have your security needs, above that your esteem needs and at the top you have your spiritual needs (Disclaimer: this might not be an accurate description of the Hierarchy of Needs but rather, what I can remember of it from the Psych 101 class I took ages ago). According to Maslow’s theory, when one’s lower level needs aren’t fulfilled, it’s damn well nearly impossible for one to be bothered with one’s higher level needs. In other words, if your stomach’s empty and growling like a lead singer of an angry adolescent band, you’re not going to be torturing yourself with thoughts on the meaning of life.
Pondering the meaning of life is for people who have way too much to eat.
In which case, I wonder whether starving supermodels and fanatical dieters ever give much thought to the meaning of life.
Although I’m not saying that hunger is easy business, it is however, a problem in which there is an obvious and direct solution to, provided one is lucky enough to live in an environment where food is easily attainable. If you’re hungry – you go to the kitchen, you open the fridge, you eat. If you’re hungry, and I mean hungry in the absolute physiological sense and not in the Oprah-I-need-to-fill-the-emotional-void-sense, your only worry is that of food and when exactly are you going to get some. If you’re not hungry, you have all the time and mind space in the world to find yourself worrying about being fat, about how worthy you are of love, about the state of the world, about the nature of time in and how you’re not entirely sure if the past, present and future occurs in a linear pattern or if it occurs simultaneously and if it does then wouldn’t the present be as real as the past and the future in which case would throw the cause and effect theory of history out the window hence there would be no consequences to any sort of action which will lead you to the half assed conclusion that nothing you do matters and if nothing you do matters, what exactly is the meaning of life then? See what I mean? Thoughts derived from higher level needs of Maslow’s hierarchy not only get your panties in a twist, they tangle up your soul and are far more complex, (if not entirely abstract) and often, do not present itself with an obvious, straightforward solution. You can’t walk in to a McDonald’s and buy yourself a McMeaningoflife Burger. You can’t walk into a McDonald’s and buy yourself absolute and spiritual happiness through a Happy Meal (though the marketing execs at McD might beg to differ). You can however eat the Happy Meal as an answer to your physiological hunger. Just don’t eat the little plastic toy that comes with the meal. That’ll just bring you a whole new set of problems.
This is what I mean by simplifying one’s soul through fasting, through voluntarily committing one’s fortunate self to truly feeling hunger and thirst. You go back to basics. Instead of figuring out how to live (or how other people should), which can take you a lifetime to figure out (and when you do, you’re dead), you put yourself in a position where you first, need to figure out how to survive. And there’s an obvious answer to survival – breathe, eat, drink, stay away from things higher up than you in the food chain, procreate.
I guess, that is why I haven’t been blogging for the past few days. In a lot of ways, blogging is my way of fulfilling my esteem needs , where I delude myself into thinking that my thoughts are worthy of being expressed to the international public, that the public is even interested in reading my values and opinions as an individual. But since I’ve been fasting for the past couple of days, experiencing a 12-hour state of hunger, thirst and nicotine withdrawal each day, my lower level basic needs has been left unfulfilled leaving me to feel like my esteem needs can go fuck either itself or my spiritual needs – get me a big plate of rice, a tall glass of juice (with pulp) and a pack of cigarettes and I’ll be happy.
So the next time your soul feels weighed down and convoluted by trying to figure out the deeper significance of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album and other useless, yet entirely worrying vague abstract thoughts regarding the Bigger Picture, try fasting and you’ll be surprised at how limited your range of vision becomes (it’s cold, it’s dark, I see spots).
And if that doesn’t work, try Scientology. Try Kabbalah.
And if that doesn’t work, try joining a cult (apparently, Scientology isn’t a cult). Better yet, try starting your own.
And if that doesn’t work, watch Oprah, watch Dr. Phil.
And if that doesn’t work, try blogging. It really is cathartic.
And if that doesn’t work, who am I to give you advice?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Tu entre todos los seres tienes derecho a verme débil ”
(You among all beings have the right to see me weak).
- El Dano (The Hurt); Pablo Neruda
At least I think that’s what it means
