About an hour ago finished a slice of cake – thick chocolate cake with chocolate icing. It was delicious. I now have a raging post cake, post sugar rush headache. I’m in a food coma. I always get a headache after eating something super sweet. It’s particularly acute if I eat that thing in the mid-afternoon on an otherwise shit day just because I am feeling sorry for myself. In other words, this was all quite predictable.
The quote you think I’m going to use is the classic about the definition of insanity. It’s a bit distressing how often that quote comes in handy. But what I really think happens with a lot of these repetitive mistakes is that they aren’t actually mistakes. It’s not that I don’t know about Cake Headache. It’s not that I’ve forgotten that post-cake guilt obsession is a thing. And it’s not that I’m mad as a hatter… though obviously there is merit to that possibility for any number of other reasons. It’s just my pastry peccadillo is not one of them.
Sometimes we repeat the thing we shouldn’t do because there actually is a Homo Economicus inside us making the educated and rational choice between doing the thing we know is a Bad Idea and the opportunity cost of not doing it. Because there was value in eating the cake. It was sweet and rich and tasted like something I truly deserved for being a brave soldier and getting my flu jab this morning. It tasted good when the fork was right side up, but it tasted better when I flipped the fork over and ran the sticky icing over my tongue and rolled my eyes and made a little moan that decidedly NSFW. So it’s not that I’m insane; In this case, I was stupidly rational.
“I’m gonna reveal something to you that’s going to come as a shock: If you’re a stupid young man, you’re usually a stupid old man. Most people, including myself, keep repeating the same mistakes.” ~ William Shatner