#yolo

I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.
Ecclesiastes 2:3b

You only live once so do what you want to do, live your life, don't waste it. The book of Ecclesiastes explores the #yolo mindset to the extreme. All types of pleasure are explored to the greatest possible lengths, he 'denies himself nothing' (v10a). This is pure hedonism - the pursuit of pleasure.

We are all hedonists. We associate the word 'hedonism' with certain things that we may or may not be interested in but, ultimately, we do what we think will bring us most pleasure. Everyone goes about that in different ways - some forget about tomorrow and blow everything today, others deny themselves certain ‘pleasures’ today because of some event tomorrow that they believe will bring more pleasure - but we're all doing it.

With food, you might stuff yourself (for pleasure) today, or diet today because you think losing weight or being healthier will be more pleasurable than eating no.

With money, you might spend all your money this weekend (for pleasure) or save it so you can afford a holiday which you believe will be more pleasurable.

Whatever we do, we are pursuing pleasure, usually without thinking too much about what we are doing. Ecclesiastes chapter 2 offers us a chance to stop and think about why we do what we do.