Decadence

I don’t know about you but for me, it’s been one of those weeks when you’re suddenly imposed with a lot on your mind. The confusing sunny days, I suspect, have something to do with it. Should you sit and have your coffee inside or outside? Shall I wear a scarf or not? Why aren’t there any lemons on the lemon trees to quench my thirst?

But eventually I realised what it was; I needed to get over my whims. And consequently I found a single word that held all the ingredients I sought of: decadence.

Because aside from a nice ring, decadence has such a profound and individual meaning for most of us, no? Does it remind you of extravagance? Luxury, self-indulgence, excess, decay? In general terms it also suggests that one’s sense of moral is in decline.

And although it was a group of French poets and painters that embraced the term in the late 1800s under what were predominantly negative connotations, there’s also optimism to be found.

If a pâtissier was to refer to one of his culinary delights as a chocolate decadence for instance, there’s a guilty pleasure to be embraced there, and that’s the point.

There’s something soothing about stripping down any form of feeling/ awareness or circumstance only to seek the pleasure that may fruit from it.

It’s when you loose control of the path you’re laying out for yourself that you’re most vulnerable. And once the decadence begins, the fun lies within the very guilty pleasures you want to explore.

As irreversible as life is, so are the memories you make. And so, as I charge forward to make ends meet, I aim to sprinkle my whims with elements of decadence, with a little bit of out of the ordinary, just to confirm that, however bumpy the road may be, there’s always an element of fantasy to be had, and savoured.

*Published in The Cyprus Weekly Newspaper, January 2014