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Guilty Pleasures

Jun 24, 2019
by Caroline Miller
A Perfect Pedicure, ecstacy, guilty pleasures, Jill Smolowe, Shakti Gawain
6 Comments

When my dad wanted to break the tedium of life, he’d get in his truck and drive off to the nearest sporting goods store.    Two or three hours later he’d be back home with a new fishing rod or reel that put a smile on his face.  I suspect many men have worn a similar smile, having acquired tickets to a ball game.    

Women have their pleasure too.  Many of them involve physical comforts.  For me, it’s a hot fudge sundae.  For my mother, it was the color and gloss of a new lipstick.  For a number of my friends, even the thought of a deep massage evokes a sigh.

Jill Smolowe, author of Four Funerals and a Wedding, describes her guilty pleasure in “A Perfect Pedicure.” (Money Magazine, April 2015 pg. 92.)  In 2007, her husband was hospitalized with leukemia, so her sister drove from Vermont to Smolowe’s home in New Jersey to look after the author’s 12-year-old daughter.  In this way, Smolowe could spend more time with her husband at the hospital.  The author was grateful, naturally, and before her sister returned to  Vermont, she proposed a treat: a luxury pedicure.

The sister blinked at the notion.  “I’ve never had a pedicure,”  she admitted. (Ibid 92)

Enough said.  The sisters hurried off to a salon for an hour of pampering.

In Smolowe’s words, the experience was orgasmic for her sibling.  “Oh,” she cried to one and all in the pedicure shop. “I can’t believe how good this feels!  Why didn’t anyone tell me?  Oh, my…God…” (Ibid 92)  She repeated this refrain more than once until everyone in the place was in stitches.  For $25, Smolowe had given her sister a little touch of heaven and, as it happened, had purchased a precious memory.  Fourteen 14 months later, the author lost not only her husband but her sister, as well.  She had died unexpectedly of stage 4 colon cancer. (Ibid pg. 97)

Smolowe’s anecdote should be a lesson to us all: guilty pleasure is a notion that should be banished from our lexicon  Pleasure is a little glimpse of heaven.  How else are we to explain the ecstasy on the faces of saints.  If revelation is joy, then joy is good.  As Shakti Gawain, author of numerous new age books has written: “… life in the physical body is meant to be an ecstatic experience.” 

I agree.  Look for me at the nearest ice cream parlor once I’ve posted this blog.

(Originally published 4/16/15)

 

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6 Comments
  1. Brenda April 16, 2015 at 7:10 am Reply
    With cofffee ice cream!
    • Caroline Miller April 16, 2015 at 8:12 am Reply
      Ice cream of any flavor is always a little glimpse of heaven.
  2. Judy Farrell April 16, 2015 at 8:51 am Reply
    I so totally agree. Having attended a small girls' school and taught by strict English nuns, I did not catch on to the principle of pleasure until after retirement at age 62: "Yes Judy, it's ok to purchase that gorgeous silk lacey slip and those Italian shoes......yep, and put a plop of home whipped cream on that hot fudge sundae. At the movie theatre order that popcorn and a cup of coffee, have a martini with a friend in mid-afternoon. Life is good.
    • Caroline Miller April 16, 2015 at 9:44 am Reply
      An Judy, you point the way to Nirvana.
  3. Maggi White April 16, 2015 at 10:24 am Reply
    I'll join you for a hot fudge sundae any time! Maggi
    • Caroline Miller April 16, 2015 at 10:28 am Reply
      Wonderful. Nothing improves a guilty pleasure more than when it is shared

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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