A Bumper Crop of Hedonism
Imprinting Abundance
Last month I read The Art of Frugal Hedonism by Adam Grubb and Annie Raser-Rowland. I recommend it.
Chapter 12, Enjoy Excess, is about periodically leaning into abundance in memorable ways—over consuming so that the feeling of enoughness stays with us over time.
An excess of a single ingredient actually seems to make excess feel even more excessive. . . Rampant consumption that characterizes modern affluent culture is a response to a feeling of never quite having “enough”. So, ironically peppering your life with punctuation marks of emphasized excess may be an excellent defense . . .
Immediately after reading this section I had to dig up this poem of abandon and abundance:
Tomatoes
I waited so long for love
and suddenly, here it is
standing in the garden, hands full
of heirlooms hot from the sun.
Soon we’ll make a supper of them.
Salted slabs between slices of bread.
Your beard silvers. My hips ripen.
The mail piles up.
Phone calls go unanswered. Forgive us.
Our mouths are full of tomatoes.
We are so busy
being small and hungry and alive.
by J. Sullivan
