Theoretically, I have many guilty pleasures:
- Reality TV shows – Celebrity Rehab, Intervention, and pretty much anything on Investigation Discovery.
- Celebrity Rags – US Weekly and People, which I generally only indulge in when I’m on vacation or home sick.
- Movies that I can watch over and over again and never get tired of (mostly romantic comedies and musicals, some cheesier than others) – The Wedding Planner, Love Actually, Never Been Kissed, A Cinderella Story, The Wedding Singer, Grease 2, The Pirate Movie, The Wiz, The Object of My Affection, Picture Perfect, and Maid in Manhattan among them.
- Low Brow Chick Lit – Too many to name and the story lines just blur together. They are basically romance novels dressed up in modern cover art. And to prove that point, many of them are even published by Harlequin.
The thing is that none of them make me feel guilty. I find joy in small things and I like that I can find it in things that are pedestrian, cheesy, and sappy, not just in those things that are intellectual and cultured. It makes me a more well-rounded person. It also makes me better in trivia contests!
When it comes to guilty pleasures, I’d say that the only ones that actually give me any guilt feelings at all are my junk food indulgences — Taco Bell’s Soft Taco Supreme, Burger King’s Whopper with Cheese, Tim Horton’s Timbits. But this has nothing to do with my unsophisticated choice of cuisine, but my feelings about food and weight in general. It’s bad for me, it’s unhealthy, but it tastes delicious, so I eat it anyway. I really just need to separate out the guilt from the pleasure. If I only indulge once in a while, there’s no reason to feel badly.
The lesson for me is that guilt is overrated. Life’s short. Indulge (even if only occasionally) in the things that make you happy!