Can luxury save the world?

Luxury is a word that takes on different meaning according to your ever changing lifestyle. For instance, if you work non-stop for five days from 8 to “8” or sometime even longer like my chum KC, your definition of a treat is probably 2 hours full body massage, a good book to read or a nice dinner with your family. For busy mothers like my another chum, Mary, with a daily schedules that juggles home, work & family, her most precious hours must surely be that overused yet underachieved “me time”. When your life is full of late night parties and sexual escapades which I don’t happen to have a friend which encompasses that intriguing habit, you might long for a night in with a few close friends and a pizza together watching Sex and the City.

How about a single guy whom have been busy freelancing and volunteering for the past 2 months?

Well, a bag packing trip to Thailand & Laos shall do the trick. Not to exclude the research and the itinerary I’ve planned for the countries almost 3 months. That amount of time rationalizing the maps and transport system is opulence to me.

However, in these more eco-friendly times where channel 5 is showing horrifying images of a plastic toy boy bleeds from the sawing to encourage us to save the earth (Gaia), defining luxury has converted into a new found meaning. Suddenly, excessive consumption and impulsive shopping especially during GSS is unbearably passé. Stocking up the fridge with supermarket-bought air freighted goods at cheaper prices looks less like great value rather more like a cost for harming the planet. Similarly, covetable fashion merchandise in your wardrobe appears tawdry when you realize it’s been sewed by an exploited labor made in India.

True luxury, we’ve come to unravel must represent something that makes you feel good while not detrimental to those around you and the world. It’s a decision you make that will last not just for your own but the future generations. Thus, in my coming bag packing trip, rather than enjoying a 5* hotel treatment and sleeping on a 500 thread count Egyptian bed sheet cover. I’ll save the world a little by little by checking in to the guest house and perhaps, maybe & probably a cold shower...