I like reading about the strangest-weirdest-oldest-biggest things out there. I guess that discovering how extreme, how ultimate some things can be helps me feel normal-er or at least a little bit like my oddities are less odd, more bearable. So when I saw this article about the most expensive cocktails in the world, I just had to read it. OK, it's a slideshow, so I didn't do much reading... Either way, some of them are, obviously, very very expensive. They are also all associated with typical rich-folks-type hang outs, like the Kentucky Derby, Tokyo, Dubai, Paris. All these places for people with too much money to waste money.
I got thinking. Luke and I always say that our needs in life are simple. We don't need fancy TVs and gadgets and a sexy apartment to be happy. Our main sources of entertainment and pleasure have always been good food and good drink. That's all we ever say that we want.
BUT
The good drink in that slideshow made me realize, no, wait, we don't want "good food and good drink". We just want non-disgusting food and drink. We don't need anything more expensive than it ought to be. My mom went to pick up some groceries today and I asked her to pick up a cheap box of wine for us. I think people who would pay $20,000 for a cocktail would never understand how wine that costs $13 for 5 liters could fit into anyone's definition of "good drink". I don't really get it either, to be honest.
Seriously: the cheap boxed wine is generally of mediocre palatable-ness. Drink only cheap-ass wine for a few months and then a $5 bottle will taste like the best thing ever laid down. It's fun.
The point is, however, we just like to be able to have a few glasses of wine/bottles of beer/drams of whiskey at the end of the day to ease our troubled minds. In no way, however, do we fool ourselves into thinking that we need anything nice and expensive (OK, OK, we do buy nice beer usually. We're not often to be seen drinking Coors Light or PBR). We're not big on status symbols, on spending for the sake of spending. So much of the world sees those unattainable, pricey things and feels a compulsion to aim for something similar. "Alright, so I can't spend $1,000 on such-and-such fancy cocktail but I can spend $14 on an apple-tini at my local bar. And maybe someday I'll have the cash-ous-ness to spend $175 on a bottle of champagne at dinner. And maybe later I can spend that $1,000 for a cocktail..." And the constant showcase of wild lavishness has created another convert to the religion of consumption.
I hope we're not fooling ourselves. I hope Luke and I really have seen the error in the conspicuous consumption dream life and are free of it's clutches for good. All we want, as I said, is good food and good drink. Oh, and some good friends to share them with!
--Allison
I got thinking. Luke and I always say that our needs in life are simple. We don't need fancy TVs and gadgets and a sexy apartment to be happy. Our main sources of entertainment and pleasure have always been good food and good drink. That's all we ever say that we want.
BUT
The good drink in that slideshow made me realize, no, wait, we don't want "good food and good drink". We just want non-disgusting food and drink. We don't need anything more expensive than it ought to be. My mom went to pick up some groceries today and I asked her to pick up a cheap box of wine for us. I think people who would pay $20,000 for a cocktail would never understand how wine that costs $13 for 5 liters could fit into anyone's definition of "good drink". I don't really get it either, to be honest.
Seriously: the cheap boxed wine is generally of mediocre palatable-ness. Drink only cheap-ass wine for a few months and then a $5 bottle will taste like the best thing ever laid down. It's fun.
The point is, however, we just like to be able to have a few glasses of wine/bottles of beer/drams of whiskey at the end of the day to ease our troubled minds. In no way, however, do we fool ourselves into thinking that we need anything nice and expensive (OK, OK, we do buy nice beer usually. We're not often to be seen drinking Coors Light or PBR). We're not big on status symbols, on spending for the sake of spending. So much of the world sees those unattainable, pricey things and feels a compulsion to aim for something similar. "Alright, so I can't spend $1,000 on such-and-such fancy cocktail but I can spend $14 on an apple-tini at my local bar. And maybe someday I'll have the cash-ous-ness to spend $175 on a bottle of champagne at dinner. And maybe later I can spend that $1,000 for a cocktail..." And the constant showcase of wild lavishness has created another convert to the religion of consumption.
I hope we're not fooling ourselves. I hope Luke and I really have seen the error in the conspicuous consumption dream life and are free of it's clutches for good. All we want, as I said, is good food and good drink. Oh, and some good friends to share them with!
--Allison
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