Viscerality

INTERVIEWER: There’s a certain esthetic to the way you live. You once talked about using good silver every day.

DIDION: Well, every day is all there is.

People think luxury is event based or louis-vuitton or mercedes based when it is really fork based. There is more to the pleasures of the earth than what can be marketed to you. Every day is all there is based. Not only is the coffee a special miracle but the cup you drink out of can be special, what’s more it should be. It is part of the ritual of every day and you should properly respect that. It carries something to your senses, it should have your adoration. If it is not special throw it away. Beg your friend or your mother for a good cup. Buy one for your lover.

The abundance of the grocery store is a pleasure. But it is another pleasure entirely to eat no cherries until they are in season and then gorge yourself on cherries. To live near an orchard or to grow your own is more visceral still. How different is the experience of plums or peaches when you must grow them, defend them from pests and deer, test their firmness as they turn from stiff to yielding. Once in season you bring in more and more as the abundance overruns you, maybe you give some away, maybe some rot on the windowsill. The cycle of deprivation and then overabundance of harvest is inconvenient, but it is much more voluptuous. Some pleasures cannot be substituted.