Oh My Word No

Still not able to upload new pics, but this one works pretty well. Photo Credit: My Child

Really, there has never been a better moment to be on the cusp of a whole week where you can go to church almost every day because Jesus died on the cross for your sins. I have two bad bad tidbits in my pocket this morning that are both super discouraging and dumb, so brace yourselves.

First up, Kathy Hochul, governor of the state of New York, gets her drink on:

We're legalizing to-go drinks — to support small businesses and because I know we could all use a drink! pic.twitter.com/tLLMgzb512

— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) April 7, 2022

Oh my goodness, Kathy, two years into the chaos and I don’t think this is the kind of messaging we need in these difficult times. No, “we” can’t all “use a drink.” There are a lot of people who do not need to be encouraged to drink more. Heck, I’m one of them. I very much enjoy a glass of wine, but if “we” have all learned anything recently (like in the last two years or five minutes), using alcohol as a coping mechanism is a bad deal. In fact, almost everything that “we” have used to cope has turned out not to be great for “us,” which brings me to my second really bad thing for the day–The New York Times treats itself:

These days, whenever Jules Zucker has to run an errand, she throws a Reese’s Fast Break candy bar into her bag. “We’re living in an era where security and ‘the big joys,’ if you will, are not guaranteed at all,” she said. “So all we have to fall back on are small comforts. It’s almost like a poor man’s hedonism.” “It’s about giving ourselves tiny wins,” she added. “Like a tiny symbol of resistance against systems that are sucking us dry and then telling us we’re failing.”

Let me just pause right now and say that I find this so utterly bleak that I am almost speechless. Not totally, but almost. This, it seems to me, is a culture without hope of any kind. Looking for “tiny wins” that amount to eating a piece of candy in one of the richest, most opulent, decadent places to live on the planet, as if “we” here in New York are practically living in Syria, Afghanistan, or war-torn Ukraine is…well, it’s depressing, terrible, and tone-deaf. We carry on:

Tracy Llanera, 35, a philosophy professor at the University of Connecticut who studies nihilism, said that this treat-forward approach is one way people are reclaiming some of the freedom and stability that has been lost since early 2020. “In the Covid pandemic, the thing that confirms that you’re suffering from existential nihilism is the lack of control,” Ms. Llanera said. Amid these feelings of ongoing helplessness and grief, she said, people try to find consistent and reliable pleasures.

Gosh, isn’t that something. They went out and found someone who knows all about nihilism to try to understand how self-care is turning into “treat culture.” That’s what this is called:

“Something about treat culture is that you’re always regularly going to get the treat,” she added. “You can depend on that, at least. There’s a guarantee that this small little ritual that you have every week will at least satiate something in you.” Treats are no novel concept; they had a notably big moment in 2011, when “Parks and Recreation” popularized the phrase “Treat Yo’ Self” — a saying that accompanied an annual day of (you guessed it) treats for two of the show’s characters — and introduced it to the collective consciousness.

I went and watched the clip and it’s pretty vulgar, actually, and also terrible. Let’s skip ahead a little. A lot of this is well summed up in a tweet linked by the NYTimes. I went and got it. Here it is:

me when i have a bad day: i think i deserve a little treat

me when i have a good day: i think i deserve a little treat

— trash jones (@jzux) January 16, 2022

Um, ackshully, none of us deserve anything except the wrath of God, but the people tweeting and so forth are not, as you have probably guessed, worried about that, but instead think this is the big problem:

But as the tweet went viral, Ms. Zucker was wary of people interpreting it as an endorsement of capitalism. “That was a tweet that got posted by a lot of brands, which I thought was kind of annoying,” she said. “Because first of all, they did not pay me. And second of all, I was like, ‘No, this isn’t for you.’ Like, get out of here! I’m not trying to help you sell products.” “I think a treat can be something you do for yourself,” she added, “not just something you buy for yourself.”

As usual, I’m curious about what Ms. Zucker and all the influencers of the day think communism is really like. Does she think that she will be invited to treat herself to expensive products when this really is the People’s Socialist Republic of New York? Will Kathy Hochul come by and pour us all another little glass of Yellowtail? That’s not how any of this works. You don’t get “paid” in that sort of system. You work really hard for people who take everything and give you only enough to stave off total hunger. OR, they let you go hungry and you die. OR, they just shoot you. Unless they wed capitalism with their communism/socialism and then you can have some stuff, unless you say the wrong thing, or do the wrong thing, or are the wrong person, and then you don’t have anything and you die. Someone from another part of the world should clue Ms. Zucker in as to what kind of treats she can expect in that kind of world. We carry on:

Greyson Imm, a 16-year-old student in the greater Kansas City area, was one of the hundreds of people who responded to Ms. Zucker’s tweet, writing that “the ‘as a treat …’ industrial complex” has been ruining his budget and validating his iced chai habit. “It’s grown into a constant in my life, which is why I phrased it as the ‘as a treat industrial complex,’” Mr. Imm said. “It sounds kind of serious, but it’s really, in essence, lighthearted, and a good way to either pick-me-up or celebrate something good.” This shift toward treat culture means that outside of big ticket purchases — and outside of the multi-billion-dollar self-care industry — people are finding small and big ways to brighten up each day. Madison Butler, a 30-year-old vice president at a glassware company, said the pandemic has encouraged her to indulge herself with bigger treats. “A treat, for me, isn’t always a big-ticket item, sometimes it’s just like, ‘I want crab rangoon,’ or ‘I’m going to walk an hour and just go sit by the water peacefully,’” she said. “But I’m a really big advocate that Black women deserve luxury.” After having a rough first week in March, for example, she extended her work trip to New York City by an extra day to stop at Louis Vuitton (where she exchanged a “nonfunctional” bag for strappy sandals), Balenciaga (where she found a pair of yellow, pink and green floral platform Crocs), Balmain (where she got a pink tote to match her new Crocs) and Dior (where she got a green tote) before heading to a performance of “Wicked.”

When covid first came into the world, I kinda hoped that everyone would feel desperate enough to ask God why he would let such a bad thing happen. I knew that wouldn’t happen, because everyone’s throat is an open grave and there are no righteous no not one, but I prayed and asked God nonetheless, because I want people to come to Jesus and be saved. And for a few minutes, if you remember, some people did reevaluate their lives and concluded that they were too materialistic and too driven by the wrong kinds of things. Family, thought some, was more important than stuff. But two years in all that self-examination has gone away and we’re left with the same ugly attitudes about stuff and people that have been growing and growing over the last hundred years as people have let go of any idea of a divine Person who knows everything and will apportion to everyone what they deserve in the final hour. Oh well, I guess. Let’s skip to the end about how to accomplish your treats:

“You have to say it’s a treat; you have to know it’s a treat,” she said. “If you just do it in passing, and you don’t celebrate it as a treat, then you don’t get the benefit of it.” Mr. Imm said that mentality is what makes his common treats — buying iced chais and visiting record stores — feel special. “You get to reward yourself by doing this thing that you would normally, but if you frame it by saying ‘it’s a treat’ or ‘it’s a reward,’ then it makes it more rewarding and more fulfilling,” Mr. Imm said. Bettina Makalintal, a 29-year-old reporter at Eater, said she has always been treat-inclined, but working from home has made it easier for her to take the time and space to care for herself. “A big shift in this idea of treats is approaching mundane, everyday tasks and seeing it in a way that makes it feel like a treat,” she said. “If I go for a walk to get coffee, then it’s not just a walk; it’s an outing,” Ms. Makalintal added. “Sort of just re-shifting how I’m seeing everything so it feels like something I want to do as opposed to something I have to do.”

You know what you have to do, all of you? Whether you like it or not, someday you’re going to have to face God. And in that moment, there isn’t going to be any amount of wine, or candy, or walks, or bags, or concerts, or movies, or experiences, or stuff that you will be able to use to shield yourself from his all-knowing, all-perfect gaze. He will look at you and know you. And what are you going to say then? It was the fault of capitalism? I’m a sinner because I had the sadz during covid? Kathy Hochul told me I could drink more if I wanted? No, none of that will help you even a spec. There are no treats that will ease your soul more comfortably into Sheol. Wake up, people. The Lord is at hand. He is even now ready to pour out his wrath on the ungodly. But you can grab the cup, this moment, and drink the wine of his mercy, his own blood, and be spared everlasting commendation. Go to church. Repent of your sins. Cry out for his help. And then eat the food he gives you in gratitude for the perfect sacrifice of the cross. Have a nice day.