Complex Numbers

Indulge Me

Only halfway through "JAFBG"  [XGC]...

Sometimes we have to tell the world to fuck off and just look after number one. What do you do (or wish you could do) for self-care?

Are you kidding me? I've arranged my life around not having to do more than the bare minimum for other people.

When you're single, retired, and don't have kids, you can do that. I know for some that would be a meaningless existence, but existence is meaningless anyway, so what's the difference?

Nevertheless, I don't know what self-care is supposed to be. I guess you can count sleeping. I'm a big fan of waking up whenever the hell I please, not being constrained by alarms. Of course, the world being what it is, sometimes you have to get up at a certain time; that's just life. And when I travel, I do try to be awake for experiences. Sometimes I'll even wake up for the sunrise, instead of staying up for it.

But sleep is important to me. It's not optional, and it's not generally something that can go by the wayside so I can do other stuff. Interfere with my sleep cycle at your peril. There had better be a fire or flood, and, moreover, something I can do about the emergency besides wait for impending doom. I'd rather die in my sleep.

Still. This isn't meant to imply that I don't care about other people. Or my cats. I try to fulfill my responsibilities; it's just that I work hard to avoid having too many responsibilities in the first place.

I understand that for some people, I don't know how many, it's in the gathering and discharge of responsibilities that they find self-actualization. But not everyone is like that. If you try to impose that on someone like me, it just becomes frustrating, aggravating, infuriating, or worse, like forcing an introvert to be an extrovert, or a night person to be a morning person.

I've known people who live only for others. Some of them do just fine with it. Others... well, others could use a good night's sleep, or a bong hit, or a nice tall cold beer. One of the greatest lies perpetrated on us is that self-indulgence is always wrong. Certainly, too much can be detrimental -- but then it ceases to be self-care and just becomes self-destruction.

After all, if you don't take care of yourself, how can you take care of others?

The trick is finding the balance, and that point will be different for everyone.

Still, moderation only works in moderation. Sometimes you have to go for excess.

Speaking of self-indulgence, on Thursday, I went to see Black Widow, and then I completely forgot to review it here. So I'm doing it now.

One-Sentence Movie Review: Black Widow

While you will need to have some familiarity with the Marvel Cinematic Universe to fully understand some of the references in the movie, there are enough gun battles, fight scenes, car chases, explosions, and special effects to make the film shine on its own, along with an actual plot with a satisfying mix of humor and drama; many of the scenes are unrealistic, but come on, it's an action/adventure science fiction movie based on comic book characters, so no one should go into this movie expecting adherence to the rules of physics or biology, just the Rule of Cool.

Rating: 4/5