Treats

It’s my birthday today. Not an excuse for wild celebration here in Derbyshire, but it does raise the question of treats. How do we treat ourselves and each other in such a prosperous age? Leaving aside government attempts to make us far less prosperous, what would a special treat look like?

Special meals maybe, but if food is reasonably good quality and well cooked, then the rest lies mostly in the imagination. It’s steak and Stilton pie from a good local farm shop for us this evening. Maybe a superb chef could conjure up something better, but not enough to see our pie as a lesser treat. An evening out at a top class restaurant would perhaps be more of a treat, but much of that is flimflam.

Special holidays, cruises, exotic destinations are fine but when they are not out of reach or something similar is not out of reach then most holidays cannot be the special treat that they were to previous generations.

A trip around the planets of the solar system would be a treat, but that’s not going to happen. Maybe the day will come when even that isn’t a treat because virtual reality will have virtually taken us there years ago.

Come to think of it, the collapse of the Labour party would be a treat. Followed by the Conservatives. Maybe two treats in a row is expecting too much though.