Stockpile Pleasure for Your Future Self
Many of us (and I count myself in this number) have ridden out the pandemic with a slightly deranged “smoke ’em if you got ’em,” YOLO-at-home mentality. I’m going to eat whatever I want, we’ve told ourselves, it’s a GLOBAL PANDEMIC, I can have a loaf of bread for a snack! Instagram ad offers just the right muumuu? Click! Carpe Diem! I deserve indulgence, it’s a GLOBAL PANDEMIC! Cocktail hour? Break out the good stuff, because who knows what tomorrow will bring, after all. (You get the idea.)
Still, there is a kind of exquisite indulgence in saving treats, even when — maybe especially when — the future is uncertain. As journalist and radio show host Manoush Zomorodi writes in Human Parts: “Preppers stockpile canned goods; we stockpile life’s little luxuries. Knowing there’s a delicious box of dark chocolate caramels waiting for you just in case today is the day you totally lose your shit? That’s not delaying gratification. That’s a tool in your coping toolbox.”
Zomorodi continues:
I’ve decided I admire my watchfulness. Deferring pleasure is looking out for my future self. It’s the squirrel stockpiling acorns for the hard winter ahead. Because, for all the talk of leaving 2020 behind, a brutal winter has just commenced. I’m fortunate enough, for now, to not need my emergency stashes. I’m finding pleasure in a CVS that’s fully…
