30 Days of Writing - #7 - Excess

Is too much of a good thing a bad thing?

Views are mixed on this deep philosophical quandary regarding excess.

Look at this guy...

Henry VIII might be referred to as a man of excesses. He was married six times. And while these marriages may have worked out well for him they didn't always end well for his wives. Indeed, a couple  might have been said to have lost their heads over the man. Late in life Henry was plagued by excessive weight. His obesity contributed to his death at the age of 55. So, in his case a good life of excess did not end well.

It strikes me that too much of a good thing can be a bit of a double edged sword.

Let's look at a couple of examples.

First off, if I had an excess of money in my savings account that'd be a good thing, right?

I could pay off my credit cards, line of credit and mortgage and maybe take a vacation to France. I hear they have some great cheeses in France. I bet an excess of cheese would be a good thing. Well up to a certain point. Too much cheese and you'd have an excess of constipation and in that case too much might be a bad thing. But then after too much cheese one might have an excess of flatulence and that would be a good thing. Well, except for those around you for whom it would probably be a very odious thing.

Imagine that.  From an excess of 5 dollar bills to an abundance of flatulence - all in one paragraph. Who would have thought.

I read an odd story last week about a young Brazilian fellow who engaged in excess. He may have thought it was a good thing but it ended rather badly. Turns out this 16 year-old couldn't sleep one night and decided to take things into his own hands...literally. Police report the insomnolent idiot masturbated 42 times in a row before dying. I can only imagine what drove him to repeat this activity as many times as he did but there must have come (no pun intended) a point when he realized "Oh, I think too much of this good thing is a bad thing." But, no, he chose to continue much to his detriment.

Just an aside here. The story is so ridiculous can't you imagine people's reaction in the retelling: "Come again?"

My last view of excess involves Queen Elizabeth and the Royal family. In my view this lot isn't a good thing. Indeed too much of them in the media is a bad thing. Sure I'm Canadian and I know I'm supposed to love the monarchy and all that but sorry, do you know how rich the royals are? Yeah, and it's a lifestyle all funded by British taxpayers. Here in Canada, we're celebrating the Queen's 60th year on the throne. That's an awfully long time to spend in the bathroom. It may be the fault of that Blue Stilton cheese, maybe. Another example of too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Anyway, Canada is spending millions of dollars to celebrate the Queen's diamond jubilee. Millions of taxpayers' dollars. Now that's excess. An excess that annoys me.

You know, I've heard the Queen never really enjoyed her familial responsibilities. When Prince Philip would beg for a roll in the royal hay the Queen would rebuff his raunchy efforts. When he succeeded in bedding her, the Queen did not enjoy herself and it is said the only way she could endure Philip's amorous advances was to close her eyes and think of England.

I guess she thought too much of a good thing was, indeed, a bad thing. But then I don't know. It's not well known how excessive a thing Philip actually had.


There are no rules to this little exercise. Participants are in for the long haul, a half haul or a day here and there. I tried my best to keep track of who's in on this but after a couple of days gave up. Already Unfinished Person has dropped out. I imagine there will be more. So what I suggest you do is visit Nicky at We Work For Cheese and check out her linky-dinky thingy to see who's in from day to day.