I hate to have to tell you this, but pleasure is out of fashion.
We’re not supposed, anymore, to enjoy our gardens. They are there for the sake of the planet. (Which is very backward in showing its appreciation.) And for insects, grubs, creepy crawlies and slugs. And all their friends and relations.
Gardens are for promoting bio diversity and diversity of all the kinds you can throw a raspberry cane at. They are ecological, so weed if you dare. They are there for your mental health, so if you don’t have any of that (whatever it is) a garden may be wasted on you.
Things do perhaps go in cycles, and we are in a puritanical one right now. We are constantly told what to eat, what not to eat. Does anyone ever eulogise the sheer delight of eating a piece of buttered and marmaladed toast and the joy of being alive to eat it? In the UK shortly no-one under 16 will be able to buy cigarettes (without bribing their elder sister). A terrible thing, smoking, but I seem to remember enjoying it once.
Sulky piece, wasn’t I?
Do you count your units of alcohol in the States? We must, here in the UK, so as not to exceed our quota, for our health’s sake. Anyone else out there remember the shameful excesses of their youth? They are so not done anymore. The amazing (if rather misogynist) liberation of the 1960s and 70s. I understand that if you’re young, you don’t indulge much in anything anymore. No drink, no fags, no sex, no drugs. Unless it’s social media? (Though, dare I confess that when life gets me down and I’m very stressed I get great pleasure for seeing videos of mad dachshunds on Instagram? Sometimes, horrors, such videos can make me laugh. This will soon be illegal)
It’s a funny thing, pleasure.
I’m not even sure I know just what it is. I see the sun shining on trees turning all shades of yellow, copper, orange and who knows what, and something happens to me.
Something subtle and – err – pleasant. A little lift. You could almost not notice it? Though I’m not sure – perhaps it’s pleasure that actually makes us notice things? And that’s what takes some of us out into the garden every day, after our pleasure fix.
The flowers.
The light on leaves. The sudden warmth in the air, meaning spring. The scent of a tiny flower filling the garden.
Sunshine sunning us. And enjoying the garden with the best.
O – and good food and drink!
Rain after a long drought. Mist on the hills. Sunshine on the hills.
And a long nurtured plant producing a flower. Eating a fresh pea as we wander. (o, veggie growing must have some pleasures?) Rain after drought. Grasses in the wind. Hoar frost. Beautiful skies.
Enjoy, as those irritating waiters say, but remember that, whenever possible, they will stop you enjoying these moments of joy.
God that’s a fab picture of you smoking. Even the way you rolled the cigarette so competently was sexy. And that dress…. Not sure how my comment takes your rather good piece forward but since I’m nearly on the other side of the world I’ll take the pleasure as I can. Sunlight through acers in Kyoto, has been my greatest today. And matcha flavoured ice cream.
I can see why Ann likes you.
That’s putting it mildly!
Marmalade on toast? Read Felicity Cloake’s RedSauce, Brown Sauce
A few of us subversives are still beggering on…..
Anne, I will finish this later but for right now I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you!!! In America, some of us (not enough, I fear) have our fill as well.
Ah, to find we are not quite alone!
YES!!! Focus on National Happiness instead of GDP, Maybe will cure global warming by causing products that LAST and more pleasure and less shopping
A losing battle?
Yes, its just so damned inconvenient when we realize that the unintended consequence of a “pleasure” may be to inflict pain on the future.
I will keep looking for those pleasures that don’t pollute. Thanks for bringing this provocative (and probably tongue-in-cheek?!) topic to us.
sounds like the sun is setting on the British Empire if it in fact has become this joyless. we americans are still in an orgy of enjoyment–hence our obesity, our drug overdoses, our indulgence in self-expression through firearms, political hate speech and any other indulgences.
Oh, Sally B. what you wrote is sad but so true.. so very true. Bravo for saying it.
Anne, I am stuffed to the gills and grateful for a wonderful Thanksgiving Day feast with family and friends—nearly 40 of them, young and old. The weather was sunny and mild. No one drank to excess, and there was only one vaper, smoking what I’m not sure. I didn’t care what she was smoking. I also celebrated a native flowering witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) at the edge of woods, and didn’t let a very late-blooming Chrysanthemum and a Korean Aster spoil the day.
So happy to hear all that! Pleasure is not yet dead.
Isn’t awful? The “Puritanical” nags are urging us to set aside self-indulgence for a bit to do something for the natural world that we gardeners claim to love. Can’t be any pleasure in that. And they’ve taken away my incandescent light bulbs. Gotta go now, though. I’m off to the Trump rally.
Politics is not a pleasure!
I loved this subversive rant. There’s abandon in the garden (and elsewhere) still!
I can tell what you’ve been up to out there…….
Anne,
This rant is one of your best! Thanks for articulating what so many of us are feeling. The puritanical scolds are loading up gardening, our visceral,healthy connection to the earth with so much intellectual guilt that people choose other activities and miss out on all the benefits.
Thank you – and I do hope you are not entirely right about how off-putting all the scolding is. But it must make new gardeners so anxious that they’ll do wrong.
Am reading your post as the sun is sunning me-pure pleasure on a November afternoon-thank you for putting words to it. I tend to think it is noticing that gives the pleasure & the puritanical types are too busy dictating to others to know what’s good for them.
Yes, an un noticed pleasure – and I’m sure we do that possibly every day – is a waste. We must do the noticing!
And so many of the kill-joys are selling something – a book, a video, a master class, a speaking engagement, etc.
True. Having a miserable message gets attention!
This too will pass. I’ve gardening books covering over 100 years and each period had their own scolders. The grand dame Gertrude’s (and I forget her last name) garden instructions were mind boggling labor intensive and if I would have paid any attention I never would have picked up a trowel.
Stay off social media and garden in peace.
You’re right, of course. Though it’s good to be reminded of some of those old books – at least those kind of issues were different ones.
I woke up thinking about this very topic the other day. So glad you wrote it. I find as I grow older these beautiful, natural pleasures are so much important to m—probably because I realize I have an expiration date.
I garden hard for pollinators, but I garden for myself too. I get a lot of joy out of butterflies, birds, colorful leaves, grasses swaying in the wind, damp earth, and scented flowers. I am tired of being scolded all the time especially on the news. Thank you. ~~Dee
A pleasure. (You just gave me one)
Anne you’ve done it again dammit. Stolen the words out of my mouth. And so beautifully too. Thank you for having the courage (for it’s taking courage these days to stand up to these scolds) to remind us that gardens are for pleasure. And that it comes in many forms.
And thanks also for the smoking pic – priceless. – MW
Thanks, Marianne! And for the great picture and occasion you smuggled your way into too.
I have a big Chinese Pistache in my back yard. It’s burgundy on top, red and orange in the middle, and yellow on the bottom. I go outside just to watch the yellow leaves flutter down like golden snow. I just stand there and watch and breathe and listen to the birds and the fountain. Ahhhhh.
That’s the thing.
Good show Ann!
Thank you!