A few weeks ago,  I found myself flipping through an issue of Town & Country Magazine.   Normally,  Town & Country is not my kind of magazine.  I’m not  interested in reading articles that debate the standing vs. running martingale, or why Patrick Demarchelier prefers to retouch his own negatives.

I was flipping past those very articles, when I saw an ad that caught my attention.  The page was entirely black.  And in white print, was the following quote from Coco Chanel herself: 

“Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty.  It is not.  Luxury is the opposite of vulgarity.”

That got me thinking… what does luxury really mean?   We can’t let the media tell us what luxury is.   It’s up to each of us to define luxury for ourselves. Personally, I believe that time is the only luxury that truly exists.  

Think about diamond rings… granite countertops.. old houses on tree-lined streets.  Why are they valuable?   Because of the great time and effort that was put into them – by man and by nature.  Consider the time it takes for nature to produce diamonds, granite, marble, trees… and how much we’re willing to pay for them.

Recently, I was lucky enough to receive the passport that my great-grandfather used when he emigrated from Austria-Hungary to the United States.   It’s a few pages of paper, bound with string.  It has no monetary value.  But there is no way to put a price on the luxury of touching these pages – seeing his signature, and thinking about the time that has passed since he held that passport in 1882.

What is the most valuable gift we can give?  What is the most precious aspect of our lives?  The time we have, and what we do with it.  Time is an elusive luxury, and my new year’s resolution is to appreciate time.  By not wasting time,  and by giving more of my time to the people and causes that I care about.

Soundtrack to this post:  Culture Club – Time

Coming Soon:   The lunch I wish I could pack.  And the lunch I actually pack.