Reasons to be cheerful, Part 7

I think for many of us our pleasures are salvations. They're redemptive, rehabilitative. They can make our miserable lives tolerable. For a time, they take us out of ourselves, which is the original meaning of the Greek, ekstasis -- to transport, displace, put into a trance. The brief forgetfulness caused by the seductions of art, by the concentration required to complete a task well -- it can be a source of pleasure. As the harried director says in the stage comedy, Noises Off! (written by the philosopher and journalist, Michael Frayn): "I come to the theater to be taken out of myself. And preferably not put back in."

As he goes on, Spiegelman occasionally does become transported. A little, anyway, he's a thoroughly rational and grounded individual, but one of his pleasures, after all, is writing, writing what we're reading, so inevitably his own pleasure comes through. The simple act of looking, he declares, can be life saving. "Swimming keeps me happy," it lifts him into "a higher spiritual realm." And as he points out in his essay on writing (although the point pops up elsewhere), when done well, when done with a relaxed awareness, these activities can be meditative, illuminating. They become akin to a secular version of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola (a contemporary of Montaigne, interestingly enough).

OK, so even I think that last claim got a little carried away. Let's just call these enjoyable essays 'Zen-like, gem-like contemplations of the everyday.'  They can lead you to a degree of self-awareness.