Substitution, More Collusion

I just checked the metrics on this blog. Guess what! The food posts are my most popular by a huge margin. People have been going through the archives all the way back to 2008.

I wonder why.

Then again, I also wonder if anyone’s noticed something. We haven’t been back to Las Vegas for a while. We will go back eventually. You can read about it when it happens.

In the meantime, I/we have been substituting experiences. Not food, the whole point to overeating on vacation is that you don’t do it at home. I mean the rest of it.

The sense of having a destination and reaching it matters, not how far away it is.

This morning we managed that level of satisfaction within 20 minutes of home, with enough time left over for me to take Melva to get her eyes checked this afternoon.

What’s important is leaving your rut. The companionability of shared experience and observation is different when you’re out among strangers.

When two people are alone together at home, they become de facto adversaries. It’s inevitable. They’re facing off conversationally as well as literally. That’s not a bad thing. There would be no narrative without conflict, and constant agreement is boring.

But put those same two people together in public, and they’re automatically a team.

The bond of just being together is more significant. It’s about structure. That’s why dating works. It’s why people make friends with the person on the next barstool. For some reason that doesn’t work in a gym, but we’ll ignore examples which don’t advance Auntie’s point.

Caring about things makes them important. Do you want sanctuary away from your tedium and your stress? Take it where you can get it, not where you think it ought to be.

Do you want something new? Maybe you want exhilaration or inspiration. Maybe you just need distraction. Well, DIY. Things are always better when you make them yourself from scratch anyhow.

Basically, it turns out that all that stuff about being happy where you are is true, only being happy at home isn't always as easy as being happy in a three-star restaurant with a constant flow of beautiful (and comped) gourmet treats.