April 21. Why does it seem like the most wonderful things are bad for us? Maple syrup, video games, even daydreaming! This is what makes me think life is not meaningless, but has a precise and strongly enforced meaning: if you live as if you're here to learn, everything falls into place, but if you live for pleasure, you get repeatedly hammered down. At least I do.
But Yiedyie suggests an amazing metaphor: "the Universe does not want us to have a monopleasure like a monocrop." Here's an image of a polycrop, the seven levels of a forest garden, from the tops of trees down to the roots. And each vertical level has horizontal variety, many plants with different functions.
Maybe we can live purely to have a good time, if we have a good time in a variety of ways, on every level from the shallowest to the deepest. Or maybe a true emotional polyculture must also include pain...