32/365: Looking in the Mirror
Snack machine, 3rd floor, JC. On campus again for the day, so shooting with the phone cam.
There is a long and wide zone of gray between starvation and the good life. In a capitalist society, I am faced daily with many choices of how I want to construct my own version of the good life. Just a few steps from here, I can also buy a limited variety of fresh fruit and snack vegetables such as carrots, celery, etc. (I won't bother to articulate what a miracle it is that I can actually buy fresh fruit and vegetables in February in Virginia.)
I have limited resources at my discretion, and so I must balance my choices towards the ones that best fulfill my ideal.
Choose $1 for a candy bar, or $2.50 for a cup of celery and carrots with a bit of dressing. Which is "better"? It's not that simple a question. If I spend an extra $1.50 on the healthy choice, I no longer have that $1.50 to spend on something else. Maybe that $1.50 would have gone to something beneficial, like a book about how to live the good life. Or maybe I just don't value the health benefit of a vegetable snack that much more. Or maybe I have a pretty balanced diet anyway, and a little processed sugar won't hurt and might actually be kind of fun.
32/365: Looking in the Mirror
Snack machine, 3rd floor, JC. On campus again for the day, so shooting with the phone cam.
There is a long and wide zone of gray between starvation and the good life. In a capitalist society, I am faced daily with many choices of how I want to construct my own version of the good life. Just a few steps from here, I can also buy a limited variety of fresh fruit and snack vegetables such as carrots, celery, etc. (I won't bother to articulate what a miracle it is that I can actually buy fresh fruit and vegetables in February in Virginia.)
I have limited resources at my discretion, and so I must balance my choices towards the ones that best fulfill my ideal.
Choose $1 for a candy bar, or $2.50 for a cup of celery and carrots with a bit of dressing. Which is "better"? It's not that simple a question. If I spend an extra $1.50 on the healthy choice, I no longer have that $1.50 to spend on something else. Maybe that $1.50 would have gone to something beneficial, like a book about how to live the good life. Or maybe I just don't value the health benefit of a vegetable snack that much more. Or maybe I have a pretty balanced diet anyway, and a little processed sugar won't hurt and might actually be kind of fun.