What is your Pleasure?

There are three ways one finds pleasure and they are by way of stimulation, novelty and aesthetics. If you know of a fourth way, please let me know. I've talked to many people about this subject and no one has yet come up with a fourth.

In the last post we discussed stimulation and whether or not you (the reader) are into this kind of pleasure. If you haven't read that post, simply scroll down. In this post we will talk about novelty.

If you are into novelty you like doing things out of the ordinary. Finding out what is behind the next door is interesting and intriguing. This could mean taking risks or experiencing things that are taboo or anti-social or even immoral. The key is experiencing the unusual. You might enjoy going on an intense roller coaster ride for the first time but repeating it might lose its value For one who is into stimulation, however, the repeated rides can still bring the "rush."

A person who likes novelty usually is going from one thing to the next, seeking the pleasure of diversity. If a person robs a bank one day, goes to church the next day, has illicit sex the following day and then takes a trip to another country he has never been to could be into novelty. But the only person that would really know would be that person.

Seeking the pleasure of novelty may not be as dramatic as what we just mentioned above. Novelty could be much less stimulating. My next door neighbor agrees that he is into novelty. When I first met him he owned an auto repair shop. One year later he sold the shop and bought a small cafe. He took a baking class at the local community college and baked his own gods and was doing very well with the business and then sold it eighteen months later and opened an antique shop. He became a picker and sold old and unusual items for much more than what he paid for them. In just over one year he auctioned off everything in the store and moved to another state, bought two apartments and rented them out. After two years he moved back into his original house next door. Now he takes in homeless dogs. 

If stimulation and/or novelty are not what you are into, you might prefer aesthetics. That's the topic for the next post. After that post you will have to decide which one you like the most.