Luxury Is A Feeling

We met at a most luxurious space, Bellocq on the King's Road, Chelsea. We spent two delicious hours tasting teas and describing our ideas of luxury. There were many thoughts mixed in to create a blend of experiences that, to our group typifies, luxury.

Ideas of a luxurious experience ranged from a private yacht with a crew to take you anywhere in the world to the simplicity of the luxury of time to spend with friends. The idea of being able to go to the cinema during the day was seen as an act of luxury.

Luxury was discussed in the context of being earned or achieved, where for some this was 'wrong' and luxury should have no such attachments, for others, this was part of the pleasure; a reward for hard work, an indulgent sanctuary.

The idea of luxury being a feeling was explored and expanded to mean a feeling that lasted, rather than a quick fix feeling of the latest 'must have' item.

One discussion led to the observation that we may 'say' one thing and 'do' another. We may 'say' we like the simple things in life, but actually be demonstrating through our purchases that we 'buy' our luxuries. In other words we may be hypocrites.

The subject of art came up and one of our group had the understanding that some buy into art as a symbol of success rather than a real love of it and others buy it for its own intrinsic quality and the feelings it evokes. For some they buy something that symbolises status as they have been schooled by our culture in this way.

Love was mentioned as the ultimate luxury and another felt this would be a complete contradiction to their idea of luxury. Love was a necessity, not a luxury.
We then wondered if we were putting too much pressure on the word 'luxury' and perhaps this was distorting our understanding of how to be happy and fulfilled.

The same level of discussion was reached when we thought of 'childhood' as a luxury. This again was seen as a right and not as a luxury. It was also discussed that each generation's ideals change and the desires change. Each generation treasures items that are scarce and these may change over time.

One person had been to the Gambia and shared the contrasting culture of ownership and security where anything could be taken by the State. The lack of laws and the randomness of society created a different set of values and suggested that security and a society with infrastructure could be seen as a luxury. However it was also seen as interesting that in many poorer countries people didn't necessarily see themselves as poor or there wasn't any sense of being poor. This was felt to be different to a city such as London where people had levels of debt or there was greater levels of obvious difference in lifestyles.

Time was seen as the ultimate luxury by many, the time to spend with friends, the time to be alone, the time to choose. In fact the luxury of being able to choose a government was contemplated as something many people on the planet strive towards. So this took the conversation to a point where luxury was linked to control... to have control over one's life was the valuable luxury we are all seeking.

There was another line of conversation which identified some of the style and lifestyle of Italy and France to be luxurious and more generous with their devotion to food and their attitude to life itself being more luxurious. The rituals and experiences of shared mealtimes, social gatherings and cooking.

When we discussed how to make our lives more luxurious one person brought in their experience of caring for an elderly relative as being a wonderful experience and that to be able to offer her a graceful and meaningful 'end of days' was a luxury. Many felt that to bring more quality to the smaller aspects of life, shopping, choosing food and to allow ourselves the luxury of doing a job properly and not just cobbling it together was something to be desired.

Ultimately it was seen that we could live more luxuriously if we simply lived for the moment, every moment.

Luxury

Thanks to everyone who joined us last night for a night of luxury. Conversation and tea tasting.
Michael and Ravi at Bellocq were wonderful in sharing their interest and understanding of the variety of teas and tastes. We'll be writing up the notes of the night and posting them up very shortly.