Sunday, April 9, 2017

Pleasures


I type the word Pleasures into the search bar at the top of my Pinterest page, a little afraid of what I am going to find. My writing directive for the day is Pleasures, and my notebook of pleasurable ideas is a little soggy at the moment, so I thought I would look and see what brings other people pleasure.

I click enter. The first photograph is of a well thought-out picnic on a riverbank; on a salmon-colored tablecloth sets a wicker picnic basket with a french baguette peeking out the top. There is another baguette on a wooden cutting board, partially sliced. There is a stack of salmon-colored salad bowls awaiting the freshly torn lettuce in the serving bowl next to them. Multi-colored cherry tomatoes sit on a cream-colored snack plate. Six glass jars hold various salad toppings. Salmon-colored linen napkins, along with real silverware are ready and waiting to be used. I find pleasure in this idlic scene, especially if someone else made all the food and laid it out for me.

Continuing down the page of pleasures, I see there are mostly pictures of food, apparently food brings a lot of pleasure.

Then there are fuzzy, yellow ducklings walking in a line down a perfectly mulched garden path, lush green grass on either side of the pathway. That would bring me pleasure too until one of the ducklings poops on the perfect path and ruins my photographic moment.

The next non-food photograph, sort of, is of three kids sitting on the tailgate of a vintage, red delivery truck, half slices of juicy, red watermelon in their hands. Their faces and shirts are amazingly juice free.

As I look at all these flawless photographs, I know that none of them would be the things that  bring me true pleasure, except maybe the picnic. But mine would be paper plates, plastic silverware, an old faded quilt, plastic red Solo cups filled with a favorite white wine, and plastic containers with fresh pasta salads from a local deli. Sitting on the faded, old quilt would be my husband and myself enjoying a perfect date day.

16 comments:

Roxi H said...

a definite thumbs up!

Linda said...

Sitting on an old quilt like that, and enjoying a lovely, simple picnic sounds very pleasurable indeed!

Lynne said...

Sounds pleasurable indeed . . .

Sandra said...

The idea of what the word 'pleasure' means, certainly varies from person to person and according to where we live. Your idea of pleasure sitting on an old well-used and certainly well-loved quilt sounds like a lovely idea to me! My own idea of pleasure would be being out of my town environment near a source of water or simply in the country listening to birdsong and the wind in the grasses!

diane said...

Ah yes.....I like your version of "Pleasures". It's pretty close to what mine would be.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
diane @ thoughts&shots

Anonymous said...

Lovely post. The less complicated and fancy a pleasure is for us, the more likely we are to be able to experience it more, and more often. For me pleasure is so often sensory -- a scent, a scene, a texture, a taste -- but then there are the ideas and stories -- and then there are the connections between people…so much pleasure is available really if we are open to it...

Carola Bartz said...

Out of curiosity I typed in the same word on Pinterest, and there we go, the same picnic and the yellow ducklings. No kids though. Instead high heeled shoes of which I wonder how they can ever give some kind of pleasure. But still some nice looking photographs that don't seem to fit into my life. I'd do the picnic as well, using our camping plates and "glasses" for the wine as well (red in our case, or rose).
I loved this post. It's inspiring - and I will dwell a little bit longer on those Pinterest pleasures and then turn back to what gives me pleasure.

Unknown said...

Sure sounds good to me, Sarah, and what a lovely post this is.

Cathy H. said...

Pleasure is certainly different for each of us. Yes, the picnic sounds good or a good book or walking along the water. I'm wishing you a pleasurable week!

Carol said...

I read your post and (yep) I did it. Searched Pinterest like you did and found the same pics you did. Then as I scrolled below your post to comment...I see Carola did the same thing. Made me chuckle. And laughing does provide me with pleasure.

Jeanne said...

Such a great post this is! You gotta love punterest

Masha said...

I also love Pinterest for images, and all plastic for picnic is on my list. Pleasure to read this. thanks

Anonymous said...

When I see photos of picnics like that one, I always wonder how many servants and pack animals it took to carry all that stuff out there and set up that "simple" scene. I like your idea of a picnic much better. After reading your post, I too looked up Pleasures on Pinterest. I was shocked by how many food photos there were. Most of it ooey gooey over-the-top sweets. That probably says a lot about our society. Great post, Sarah - thought provoking.

Karen Lakis said...

It would never occur to me to type pleasure into the Pinterest search - now I'm going to need to try it. I'm pretty sure I have a board called "just for fun" which isn't exactly the same thing - and I'm pretty sure it's just a mish mash of stuff. Food definitely gives me pleasure, but unless it was a huge ice cream cone, I probably wouldn't classify it that way. I love your quilt - that would bring me pleasure either at a picnic or on my bed (my bed brings me pleasure)... your post has me pondering.

Unknown said...

scrolling through Pinterest gives me pleasure! I do like your idea of a picnic tho...come to think of it...haven't been on one in a long time...hmmmmmm

Suburban Girl said...

Sounds pleasurable to me too!