On Monday this week, when in Rome, I was chatting to the most sympathetic journalist imaginable and we soon ended talking about many things in detail that were beyond me creating and producing fragrances. What made the difference: She was actually very, very prepared and already knew a lot about how I do things here, in tauerville. Thus, we could for instance talk about luxury, what luxury really means; for me the biggest luxury these days is time, I said. And true luxury does not define itself through price, I continued. It often defines itself through authenticity, a story that is real, a limitedness that is not artificially created.

Time is luxury because there is little (free) time, here. And, because -whatever we do- our time is limited, at least our time walking on two legs on planet earth. Therefore, you have the cocktail for the perfect luxury: Limitedness, becoming more limited with every day that passes. Authentic luxury. Quite often, luxurious things and notions are a gift anyhow; like a gift of mother nature, giving us another day in peace before she twists a gene and sends us towards a cancer downward spiral; a gift of our neighbour’s child deciding to stop crying at 3 am; a nice flacon of perfume.

So, I had this chat with the journalist, in Rome, in the morning, and had some down time until later in the afternoon. I went up to the park around Villa Borghese: A place of peace, green joy, where I ended up painting for an hour or two, loving a detail looking into the wall of trees and bushes in bright noon light on the other side of the bench : The contrast of the red little plastic cubic space created by a net on top of a dip in the asphalt, and the green vivid hands of green in the background.

While painting, on a luxury item actually, because this e-thing fulfills another possible criterion of luxury: something we do not really NEED, I was thinking that luxury can actually be many, many things. And that one fine day, I might want to create and offer fragrance that you can’t buy, really, but only get as a luxurious gift from somebody else. That might be cool. Memo entry for happy creative Friday done.

Today, however, is less creative: Factory work, mostly. Enjoy your day!