The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.

Sometimes there is nothing more a lad needs than to chew on his mother’s finger for a while. Lately, Ezra has taken it upon himself to chew on whatever he can manage get into his mouth. I am not one to judge, whatever gets him through the night is fine by me.

Sometime I wish that all it took was a quick nibble on a finger to make all of my worries melt away, but alas, it is never that simple. With Christmas on the horizon – and my loathing of all things holiday cheer as solid as ever – I have been thinking about something that I can’t quite make a decision on.

The issue concerns two grossly obese blokes that can be found in the bus mall at 7:45 every morning. These fellows, without fail, can be spotted eating a gigantic helping of fish and chips each. I can’t quite decide if I admire their enthusiasm, zeal and casual disregard for the judgment of the mob, or whether they disgust me.

As always, the very sight of two grossly overweight fellows stuffing their greasy faces full of artery-hardening fat triggers me to ponder the very essence of freedom. We’re not talking the kind of freedom that signifies the mastery over one's inner condition.

Are these guys masters or slaves, is what I am wondering. Some would argue that their inability to act in accordance with the dictates of reason renders them slaves to their desire. Yet perhaps Fatty A and Fatty B are merely expressing their ability to act in accordance with their own true self regardless of the slavish decrees of modern medicine vis-à-vis diet and exercise.

But no, I tell myself, does Kant not have a point, is not freedom choosing “what ought to be done”, not “what I want to do”? Is the ability to act in accordance with universal values not true freedom?

For a bald French bore, Sartre proposes an interesting view on freedom with his notion that humans are condemned to be free. In this sense, Fatty A and Fatty B carry not just the weight of their bulging guts, but the weight of the whole world on their hulking frames. In this way, they are responsible for the world and for themselves as a way of being!

Cor blimey!

For Sartre, even if one does not want to be responsible, one cannot be anything but responsible for their actions. For Sartre, the Fatty brothers – in the daily expressions of their essential gluttony – are expressing their essential freedom. Even if they are slaves!

Philosophy, don’t you just love it?