Thursday, April 26, 2012

The art of celebration

The celebration of nothing is something that continues to baffle me. People get together, dance, get drunk, have sex with strangers, do drugs, all because they made it to the end of the week. Because these are the things that are "fun" and signal to others that the people celebrating know how to have a good time, and are the epitome of class and luxury and should be admired for their enjoyment of "the finer things". While it seems like many young people enjoy these activities, I have never understood why, because most of them have done nothing and accomplished nothing that would warrant such extreme debauchery. I exist under the impression that only those who have accomplished something are worthy of luxe celebrations. Part of the discord between my understanding of enjoyment and other peoples' is that I have a different idea of what "celebration" and "luxury" are, and I believe that excess involves more than just spending too much money.






"They remained silent, letting the room be filled by the sounds which centuries of men and of struggle had established as the symbol of joyous attainment: the blast of the cork, the laughing tinkle of a pale gold liquid running into two broad cups filled with the weaving reflections of candles, the whisper of bubbles rising through two crystal stems, almost demanding that everything in sight rise, too, in the same aspiration."


- Excerpt from Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

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