Epicureanism/Hedonism/Greed or What?

Hoped you missed my blog the past two weeks. I did not take my MacBook Pro on vacation. Wifi is too expensive on the ship. So freed from the Internet, we had a great time. Coming back to snow and cold, well  - C'est une grace!

Habits learned during the working years are hard to break. I remember how we used to look forward to Fridays. The work week was over and Friday was the starting line of two full days away from the office. Well, even then it was sometimes a dream. Often it was necessary to take home projects for the week-end. But that did not belittle the winsome romance of the week-end itself.  Yet, twenty retirement years later, Friday evening still has that certain buzz about it. TGIF remains resonating in the back of my head! We have just come back from three weeks of 'holidays'. When 'everyday is  'Saturday', why do we do we call it 'holidays'? Its like taking a special vacation from your permanent vacation! But, change is good so they say.

Eurodam - Holland American Line

We were on the cruise ship Eurodam, (another 'damn' ship one of the latest in the Holland America line of cruise ships) for fourteen days, visited many ports and sailed 3,730 NM (Nautical Miles). At the end of the cruise we spent another four days in Miami on the beach before returning to the snow, cold and wet. There were over two thousand guests on the ship - 2,131 to be exact. The average age, so I heard, was seventy-three. Lots of grey hair and over-weight white skinned adults being served by what we used to call minorities! I noticed the same disproportion once on shore. Handling our baggage, serving our meals, cleaning our rooms, working on the construction of new hotels in Miami, driving the cabs, and even searching our bodies and bags as we moved through the security lines at airports. Historically, as the baby-boomers gradually move out, or is it on, that disproportion will change. Meanwhile, I like to think Toronto is ahead of so many other cities in North America in this respect.

The Eurodam is a floating palace, at least compared to the average home. It burns 75 gallons of fuel oil a mile with a maximum speed of 23.9 knots. But so much luxury and comfort? I had to ask myself is taking a trip like this some form of Epicureanism or a manifestation of Hedonistic greed? I admit I had a few moments of guilt and shame as I watched the news in the evenings and saw millions of fellow humans suffering wars, conflict, family separation, political upheaval and dire poverty. My major concern was hoping it did not rain  on the Lido deck in the afternoon! This does not mean we should not participate, it does suggest that we appreciate and are thankful for what many of us are able to do as Canadians. 

In Miami we went to the Miami International Boat Show. There were three or four locations, but our hotel was a block from the docks presenting hundreds of mega-yachts. It was the only location that was free as well! Everything on exhibit from the Dungaroo (a waterless, odourless toilet) to yachts costing over eight million dollars. You could charter one for only $300,000 a week instead if you wanted to! Many of these commodious yachts were loaded with 'toys' such as a yellow submarine, a small fleet of Yamaha water craft or a helicopter on the rear deck. If you decided to purchase one of these babies they would throw in a free Maserati or Mercedes - usually displayed on the dock beside the yacht! I did not see many young people from the Occupy Movement or the Idle no More group looking over the fleet! As the Epicureans would say "Don't spoil what you have by desiring what you don't have; but remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for." To be fair to those ancient Greeks the pleasures they were talking about were the pleasures of the mind rather than physical pleasure. Not so the Hedonists. I guess I was really an Epicurean as I wandered on and off these magnificent luxury boats. The pleasure was definitely only in my mind.

We returned to Canada on time to see both the Women's and Men's hockey teams win gold!

Does it ever get any better than this?

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week