prelude<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

joy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

abundance<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

boundaries<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

balance<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

democracy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

reciprocity<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

harmony<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

bliss<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

sensuality<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

silence<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

slowness<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

stillness<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

sweetness<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

gracefulness<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

rest<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

peace<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

eroticism<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ease<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

collective care<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

interiority<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

intimacy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

desire<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

thriving<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

these are my pleasure principles<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

these are the ethics\/values\/and principles that guide me<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

these concepts undergird everything that i do<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

what are yr pleasure principles?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

i am a blk gurrrl in search of utopia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i won\u2019t settle for anything less than paradise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the last two years have perhaps been the most unpleasurable in the history of my life<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i have been stressed out\/depressed\/anxious and just generally unhappy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i am hungry for something more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i crave adventure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i crave fluidity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i crave a change of pace and new energy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i want to live my most abundant\/joyful\/pleasurable life<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i know that we all do<\/p>\n\n\n\n

bur how can we get there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

how can we transform ourselves and the world to be a more pleasurable place?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

movement 1: what are the barriers to pleasure?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

we live in an anti-pleasure world<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the matrix of domination that we operate under does not center pleasure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it centers product<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the roots of capitalist productivity have puritanical underpinnings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the puritans believed that a person achieved favor with god thru how much they labored<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the idea of american exceptionalism is rooted in this ideology<\/p>\n\n\n\n

early americans saw this country as a \u201ccity on a hill\u201d that towered over and looked down upon other nations because of the so-called american work ethic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the lie that we have been told is that if we work hard we will get far<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but we know that this country is rooted in white heteronormative cisnormative patriarchal capitalism and not everyone is meant to get a piece of the pie or ascend to paradise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the great conundrum then is that only certain people are allowed to \u201cgo far\u201d while others, because of their race\/gender\/sexuality\/class work just as hard and settle for less<\/p>\n\n\n\n

all my life i have worked hard but this has not garnered any personal happiness<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i am a single 33-year-old black trans womxn<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i live in a small studio apartment<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i have tons of student debt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

my success in navigating systems has yielded little pleasure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and so the question i find myself asking is what waz it all for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

now don\u2019t get me wrong<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i am grateful for all that i have (i will discuss gratitude and abundance in later essays)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i love my mind<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i love who i am<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i love myself despite the structures that i am forced to live under<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and this is where pleasure starts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

inside ourselves\/not outside<\/p>\n\n\n\n

when we look inward\/we find hidden treasures<\/p>\n\n\n\n

our interior lives are powerful and give us sustenance to keep going<\/p>\n\n\n\n

when we stop focusing on outward productivity and focus on our own internal processes we are practicing pleasure\/we are tapping into a primal way of being<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

movement 2: tapping into an ancient self<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

it is my belief that earth waz once a utopia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a utopia that we as a human race yearn to get back to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

scientifically speaking human beings were not made to work a 40 hour work week or go to school for 40 hours a week<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we were all hunters and gatherers once<\/p>\n\n\n\n

migrating from place to place<\/p>\n\n\n\n

living off the land and taking care of it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

our bodies and brains were not made to labor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we were made to love<\/p>\n\n\n\n

were made to live our most pleasurable\/joyful\/abundant lives<\/p>\n\n\n\n

this is our birthright<\/p>\n\n\n\n

this is why we are here<\/p>\n\n\n\n

capitalism is a distraction<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it keeps us occupied so that we forget our true mission and destiny<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we don\u2019t know how to take care of ourselves or each other<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we are slaves to time and money<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we think there are limited resources<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but if we look at the natural world<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the world that we have been cut off from<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we would know that this is a lie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

if we were not bamboozled by this bullshit system<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we would know a lot of things<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we are cut off from our own internal wisdom<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the external has become privileged over the internal in this empire called america<\/p>\n\n\n\n

under this trash ass system called global capitalism<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

movement 3: the future is a utopia<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the past waz a utopia and so the future shall be one as well<\/p>\n\n\n\n

what we are experiencing now is rebirth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and rebirth is messy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it is not clean or precise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but the process can and should be pleasurable<\/p>\n\n\n\n

because what\u2019s on the other side is beautiful<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the other side is joy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the other side is pure unadulterated pleasure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and we can get there when we divest from systems and ideologies that no longer serve us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and when we invest in our own pleasure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we must annihilate to rebuild<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we must break down to be rebirthed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it is only then that we can manifest our own personal paradise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and make the world into a utopia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

oh how sweet that day will be<\/p>\n\n\n\n

oh how sweet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

coda<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

i am a blk gurrrl in search of utopia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i won\u2019t settle for anything less than paradise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

doing pleasure work is holy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it is a practice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it is a journey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

journeys are so much better when you go on them with other people<\/p>\n\n\n\n

will you create a community with me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

will you come on this pleasure journey with me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n