Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Never save for tomorrow...

In these economic worrying times the headline might sound a bit absurd, but there is a lesson to be learned behind it.
Never save for tomorrow what you might gain pleasure from today, because the pleasure might be gone tomorrow. Earlier in the autumn my wife and I found this superb chocolate pasteria in Lecce, Italy. In the window display you could see the dessert creations being made in the kitchen via live TV transfer. It was pure joy, and impossible to resist a purchace of their produce.
So we brought home some goodies. And as often happens when we buy these extra treats we saved them for that special occation.

It never came. In time at least. Here is one of the cookies we bought.


Mould has never been the highlight of our daily intake. This has happened to us more often than I like to remember. Truffles from Umbria, dried ham from Barcelona and the list goes on. I know we're not the only ones who happen to experience this.
An interesting research study I picked up some years ago. In economic downturn we happen to buy the finest goods on Sundays in Mini marts and similar stores. Theres few places a beef cost as much as in those venues, but it is a comfort buy when we're filled with daily worries. Daily escape through absurd purchase. Irrational, yes. Human, yes. Smart economics. No.
It's irrational but human to save. In older times we were forced to dry the meat to even have meat in the coldest months of the year. Today it is a pricey high street product. One that we still save for those special treats. So unfortunate that those are rare and we have forgotten to preserve.

A good advice. Celebrate today, even the smallest thing. And make sure to look in the cabinets for those really precious goodies. They don't last forever, with or without you.