Change, snobbishness and other things

For the longest time, I used to envy the lives of the idle rich. Having the time and the money to make indulgence a constant habit was to me the dream that ought to have been my life. But as anyone who's spent a long vacation (or even a weekend) doing nothing will attest, it all gets a little tiresome after a while.

I am a geek and I get adrenaline highs on creating wonderful excel sheets. Give me a difficult modeling problem and ask me to work on an elegant solution overnight and there is - at that time - nothing more that I'd like to do. Of course, the relaxation and the celebration following a deal (if we win it) is more fun. But the point is (I am sure you'd have been wondering if there is one to this meandering narrative - and the answer is, I am not sure that it is what I am going to say or even if there really is one) that it would not be fun unless I was stressed out and close to breaking before it.

What would you do if you had enough money and time? Think that you can afford to retire right now. Not tomorrow, not next year. But Now. I would hop on a plane and go to NY and catch the Korean movie festival that is on. Oh and get M. to join me - of course! But when you are in love it is easier to not get bored. A midnight snack becomes more enjoyable than any meal you've ever eaten before. Assume that you are alone. That makes things harder. I can imagine that I will spend a lot of my time reading books, watching cinema, listening to music, following DJs across the world... Maybe even start a Superclub. But even that just emphasizes the point. Why a superclub? Once you've experienced something, anything less becomes oh so unsatisfactory. After PVD, a John '00 Fleming gig leaves me with a vaguely empty feeling. Like I've been somehow letdown. The same with cinema. After a Tarkovsky or Wong Kar-wai, can you possibly stand mainstream Hollywood inanities? Once you've drunk a well made Cuban Martini, can you possibly drink a badly made cosmopolitan? Are good experienced to be cherished? Or are they to be avoided because they soil your remaining experiences? Is it good to be so easy to please? Isn't it so much better to be not as discerning and eat and drink and watch and hear anything and enjoy it? Am I a cultural snob? No. But I resent other people for being so easily pleased. I get rave reviews of a movie and I am invariably disappointed. I trust so few people with their judgment on what I might like.

But assume that I could get a surfeit of what I want! The best music, the best movies, the best books...Would I still be bored? I think so. I can't dream of doing these things all the time. If they become what I do all day - everyday - what would I do for a relief? Probably slum it culturally I guess!!! Nothing like a dose of the mainstream to get you to appreciate things better. Prevents you from getting jaded.

Think I've struck upon the two cures for worldweariness - falling in love (highly recommended) and slumming it - to be used judiciously and always only after making sure that you have an escape at hand when things get too much for you and you just can't stand it without going totally nuts!

Oh I forgot to add that I think that it is very difficult to feel that you'd ever get bored in Goa/ NYC and Ibiza (Never been there, but with the music hard to believe that I'd ever get bored there)

ubergeek, the