Take Care of The Luxuries

 



“Take care of the Luxuries...” 


Kim Delmar Cory 
 
                Envision a lovely couple dressed-to-the-nines, the young woman wearing a floor 
        skimming off-the-shoulder white dress, her hair elegantly coiffed, the young man
        boasting a tailored black Armani suit and a thousand-dollar haircut. Their hands, necks
        and arms glitter with newly purchased baubles that likely cost three years' worth of my
        salary. 
                What if this fetching duo work minimum wage food service jobs, live in a low 
        rent district one bedroom apartment, and used every penny of their recent lottery 
        winnings to purchase the clothes, hair styles, and baubles described? 
                So what if they did? 
                By today's social mores, they would likely be considered self-centered, self 
        serving, and self-indulgent. Shouldn't this young couple have donated a significant 
        portion of their lottery winnings to children's charities or disease research or to 
        underwrite a new archeological dig to discover the real 'truth' of what happened to 
        Amelia Earhart? At the very least start a sensible 401k fund towards their retirement 
        from Wendy's? 
                I hate that word 'sensible’. It offers no gist of nuance or shimmer of joy. 
                "Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves."
        Dorothy Parker. Granted, famed 1920's writer Parker was a blacklisted, suicidal, thrice married,
        alcoholic, but who's to say she didn't have a grand time of it? 
                My sister and I adhere to Parker's adage on a more economical and reasonable 
        level than does this lottery lucky twosome. 

                We are “everywoman’: unremarkable and commonplace in our daily lives.
                Yet we consider Dorothy an oracle of what can and should occur with far 
        reaching vision and limited funds. How to transform the mundane into the extraordinary, 
        like wrapping twinkle lights around a trash can. 
                Allow me.
                Let's say my sister needs a dead tree in her yard cut down. She budgets for the 
        tree removal dude to come out and...squirrel...look at those marvelous one-of-a-kind 
        Christmas-themed pillows with sparkling reindeer sporting a smoking jacket and a pipe. 
        And that hand-dyed wool carpet that perfectly complements her decor.  Which she 
        realizes as she happily floats out of Target carrying her non-bargain basement purchases,
        leaves approximately $6.83 cents in the dead tree removal budget. 
                Seriously, which would you rather look at day in and day out for pure esthetic 
        enjoyment? Which will make you smile and your heart glow while keeping your feet 
        toasty and your floor clean? 
                A gray dead tree stump or sassy sparkly pillows and a warm rug? 
                Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves. 
                True to Dorothy's words, within a week a thunderstorm wind blew the dead tree 
        down, a neighbor came by with a mega-sized power saw and cut the now horizontal tree 
        into fireplace logs. Voila! The necessities took care of themselves. 
                Let's hear it for the unrepentant choice of opulence over humdrum. Lavish instead 
        of ordinary. Hochmut, as the Amish would say, instead of plain. 
                I applaud the demise of sensible. 
                We're not suggesting not to donate to the needy. Share with others. That one 
        should buy everything that sparkles or smells divine. 
                We are simply following Dorothy's sage advice. 
                Even a luxury as simple as obtaining a pair of strappy sandals you've coveted but 
        don't think you should purchase as you don't have an outfit to go with them. 
                Yet. 
                Really? 
                If you were to buy these sandals, wouldn't life go on? You would eat, breathe, 
        work and play as usual. You would purchase food and pay utilities. The necessities would 
        take care of themselves. And you would have these awesome sandals that made you 
        smile every time you looked down at your stunningly shod feet. Don't forget the 
        mandatory pedicure. 
                Likely you have an old pair of sad sandals in your closet that you have been 
        wearing year after year 'because you had them'. Yes, they go with everything because 
        they are sad and sensible. Possibly poop brown. 'Serviceable’ as your grandmother might 
        say. About the sandals she would likely still wear.
                Get over it. Chuck them. 
                Doesn't that feel better? Who needs poopy sandals? What would wearing them 
        say about you as a person? More importantly, would they inspire sparkle in your every 
        step as the strappy sandals would? 
                Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.
                
Luxury requires living in the moment and a tad bit of risk-taking. Whimsy. 
        Decadence. Like a perfume that enchants and captivates with its breathtaking fragrance 
        long after the wearer has left the room. 
                Like a pair of sassy sandals or sparkly pillows. 
                Perhaps even that twinkle light swathed garbage can.  
                Luxury is not attaining that which is expensive or richly made; it is attaining that 
        which is heartwarming, cherished and memorable. 
                Rock on.