in ascending order:

1. Instant Gratification (temporary)  – improves immediate quality of life  while causing permanent damage.
   • ex. Smoking a cigarette, having a drink, sugar.
2. Catharsis, humor – identification with another person’s suffering or situation often through engaging in zeitgeist.
   • ex. Theater. Relief. Belly. Shared laughter, recognition, coping, validation, spotlight. Risk and payoff.
3. Pleasure – Experiential joy through action and vulnerability. Maybe strenuous then gratifying. Maybe calm and wash over you.
   • ex. Orgasm, indulgence, beauty, movement. Synthetically induced euphoria. Sensory engagement.
4. Creation – Tying vision with physical and material reality. Bringing something to life.
   • ex. cooking, destruction and rebirth, assembly, cohesion, moving parts, choreography, a line through the chaos.
5. Freedom –  God given, self-endowed, in any context.
   • ex. To endeavor on a journey, to learn, to fail, to grow, to live autonomously, communally, with forgiveness as a powerful source. Safety in oneself. Mutation and evolution.
6. Bliss, Nature, Euphoria – rejoining with the source. Recognition of often forgotten pervasive oneness. The chaos itself.
   • ex.  Effervesce.  Earth, space, God, love. The smell of your mother. A language without limits. Sun on skin moss under foot. The owl the salamander the cat and the whale. Whispering presence, lean in.