Ah yes, Work versus Cheese. The eternal struggle. I believe Karl Marx wrote about it in his book Das Kapital und Kase. Proust recalled it in Remembrance of Cheeses Past. And even the bible tells us: With Cheeses, all things are possible.

    The great paradox of life is that cheese is better than work, but one must work to obtain cheese. Hence, the future cheese and the present cheese contest for our very soul, much like two delicious metaphysical gladiators. (Perhaps you think that there are purposes to life aside from cheese. Perhaps you are a fool.)

    Yesterday, I had the option of leaving work and going home to eat cheese, but instead stayed late-- ostensibly because there was work that needed doing, but mainly for the purpose of being able to afford more cheese. In this case, future cheese won out over present cheese.

    Thisafternoon, I had planned to go to work, but ended up not doing so. Instead, I stayed home and had some Bergenost, a delightful triple-cream Norwegian butter cheese, along with some crackers and an apple. Here, we see the triumph of present cheese over future cheese.

    This evening, while I will be hungry for cheese, I instead plan to go to work because I failed to get there thisafternoon, and must increase my future cheese-purchasing capabilities. Here, once again, future cheese manages to overcome present cheese.

    So, what can we learn from this? Well, first of all, the quality of present cheese is an important factor. Given the choice between an immediate lump of unaged, generic, low-quality cheddar and the promise of future cheese, the virtuous path is to seek the future cheese. During thisafternoon's reveries, present cheese afforded a delicious and delectable cheese of great immediate benefit, which would not easily be trumped by a future cheese.

    Timing, as always, is also a factor. Cheese on a weekday evening is part of a tasty regimen, but is not strictly necessary on a nightly basis. Weekends, however, are meant to be enjoyed, and as we all know, enjoyment only occurs insofar as there is present cheese. The mere promise of future cheese would not serve to sufficiently enhance one's Saturday repose, while a Thursday evening's ruminations may be well-fortified by the knowledge that Saturday will bring fromagerial fulfillment.

    Additionally, a man sated by cheese from the previous evening's gustatorial activities may be in no rush to favor a present Camembert over a future Brie. On the other hand, a fellow who has been devoid of cheese for an entire week would leap at a block of present Swiss, even at the cost of earning money for future Jarlsberg.

    Yes, the struggle between work and cheese is a difficult one. The only escape from this conundrum is for those whose very vocation it is to produce cheese. This is why Cheeses, in Life of Brian, said "Blessed are the cheesemakers, for they shall inherit the earth."