– Being teased by old friends
– The fish shop
– A night alone in a hotel
– Crushes
Growth
The problem is that we get stuck with our fears which are the legacy of bad experiences; these get in the way of potentially better, more mature versions of ourselves; some small pleasures are moments where we’re getting a hint about growth:
– Gaining the confidence of a previously suspicious colleague
– ‘Getting’ a work of art for yourself
– Very dark jokes
– Finding one’s feet in another country
– Walks at midnight
Appreciation
The problem: we skate over and glance past things that have much to offer us.
– Grandmothers
– Crying cathartically over the death of a fictional character
– Perhaps all small pleasures fit in this category
Four: Small Pleasures and Capitalism
At various points in the past, charming little things have come into focus and been taken up by the commercial forces of the world and turned into universal and easily recognised pleasures. The idea of eating little bits of pasta twisted into spirals must once have seemed very strange and hard to take seriously; if you had to make your own, almost no one would ever eat them. But they’ve been taken up by industrialists and advertisers and recipe books and TV chefs, and millions of packets of fusilli are now sold in supermarkets every week around the planet. The leading manufacturer, the Barilla Group, has an annual turnover of 3.3 billion euros.
In Japan, much attention is paid to the blossoming of cherry trees. Almost everyone makes a special trip to see them at their best and take special picnics to eat under the white flowers. The boost to the economy is the equivalent of around a trillion yen (around 6 billion GBP). The UK has very nice cherry trees too, but as yet has not developed a portion of the economy around them. And the consequence is that though people in Skegness and Taunton like cherry trees, they don’t pay special attention to them and most people find the season has passed before they quite noticed. Building a pleasure into the economy isn’t a good thing primarily because it can make money. The argument is rather different. It’s that when an industry gets organised, it raises the status of a pleasure and therefore brings it more reliably and impressively to our notice.
There are so many small pleasures whose potential has not yet been fully grasped by society at large – walking at midnight, looking at moss growing on old walls, having a proper conversation with a stranger …
The idea that these pleasures might sponsor large industries devoted to promoting them sounds odd only because they are not as yet established. The activities in themselves are no less pleasurable than sliding down the side of a mountain (the global skiing industry contributes 60 billion USD to the world economy each year) or watching people hit a small ball over a net (the tennis market is 1.5 billion USD a year). And of course, a few decades ago a prediction that these enjoyments would flourish on such a scale would have seemed absurd. There are vast industries waiting to emerge around all the things we could enjoy, and benefit from, but don’t as yet because we are not systematically encouraged to pay attention to their charms.
***
Small pleasures seem small until we pay them greater and more systematic attention. We are trying to educate ourselves in a central part of life: that of discovering how to make the most of the opportunities for satisfaction that come our way and through them to create for ourselves and others more flourishing and less pained and lonely lives.
Credits:
Images courtesy of Flickr.com, reproduced under Creative Commons License 2.0:
p. 10 Photo News Øresund – Johan Wessman, https://www.flickr.com/photos/newsoresund/9411579597
p. 14 View from Plane, BC June 2010, Anita Hart, https://www.flickr.com/photos/anitakhart/4696873443
p. 44 Mittens, Navin75, https://www.flickr.com/photos/navin75/193054662/
p. 48 My finger in front of the lens, Takayuki Miki, https://www.flickr.com/photos/8305862@N07/15727062769
p. 54 Cows in Switzerland, Tammy Lo, https://www.flickr.com/photos/tammylo/10314236856
p. 56 Matt Buck, https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattbuck007/16117354101
p. 60 Bruxelles, Chiara Cremaschi, https://www.flickr.com/photos/hervoices/4570048445
p. 68 Rain, Daniel Tomlinson, https://www.flickr.com/photos/dantomdesign/6627936057
p. 96 Interstate 90 - Minnesota, Doug Kerr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougtone/6171241860
p. 100 Monday Morning, Quinn Dombrowski, https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/6788872752
p. 104 Before Tattoo, Star Athena, https://www.flickr.com/photos/starathena/6006788463
p. 138 Reading, Quinn Dombrowski, https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinndombrowski/7619238190
p. 142 Reading with Silence, Carlos Martinez, https://www.flickr.com/photos/kumanday/312497595
p. 156 Time Together, The Italian Voice, https://www.flickr.com/photos/desiitaly/2158957855
p. 168 TV Mouth, Sheona Beaumont, https://www.flickr.com/photos/shospace/5038198233
p. 172 It Is To Laugh, Ed Schipul, https://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/199259734
p. 176 Let Flowers Speak, Angela Marie Henriette, https://www.flickr.com/photos/mara_earthlight/6875448025
p. 180 Dannielle Blumenthal, https://www.flickr.com/photos/dannielleblumenthal613/15857265681
p. 192 Faces, Oran Viriyincy, https://www.flickr.com/photos/viriyincy/6121304327
p. 204 Bubbles Bubbles Everywhere, Katerina Hlavata https://www.flickr.com/photos/kachnch/15873129396
p. 208 The Only Way Is Up, Anders Lejczak, https://www.flickr.com/photos/polycola/19107706842
p. 212 Daisies, Jolly Janner, https://www.flickr.com/photos/34527231@N06/3450822975
Images courtesy of Flickr, reproduced under Creative Commons License 0, 1.0:
p. 84 Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss, by Antonio Canova, 1787, Louvre Museum. Joe deSousa, https://www.flickr.com/photos/mustangjoe/5841945333
Images courtesy of Marcia Mihotich:
p. 32; p. 72; p. 88; p. 108; p. 148; p. 152; p. 216.
Image courtesy of Freenaturestock.com reproduced under Creative Commons License 0:
p. 18 Adrian Pelletier, http://freenaturestock.com/post/127746705034
Image courtesy of Stokpic.com reproduced under Creative Commons License 0:
p. 40 Lovers Holding Hands On Beach with Bikini, photo by: Ed Gregory, http://stokpic.com/project/lovers-holding-hands-on-beach-with-bikini
Images courtesy of Pexels.com, reproduced under Creative Commons License 0:
p. 80 Katie Salerno, Pexels.com, https://www.pexels.com/photo/love-people-kissing-romance-18397
p. 132 Bob Clark, Pexels.com, https://www.pexels.com/photo/vinyl-music-play-spinning-21148
Image courtesy of Kaboompics.com:
p. 92 Man Reading Newspaper, photo by Kaboompics.com, http://kaboompics.com/one_foto/564/man-reading-newspaper
Image courtesy of Tookapic.com:
p. 184 Last Fitting, ©Tookapic.com/Michael Kulesza, https://stock.tookapic.com/photos/29003
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.com:
p. 22 Senior woman viewing photo album in living room, © Kristo-Gothard Huno, Shutterstock
p. 128 Color magazines in leather living room, © Federico Rostagno, Shutterstock
p. 160 Typical Tuscan countryside with cypress and meadow, © Zoom Team, Shutterstock
p. 164 Lagoon Nebula, M8, © Igor Chekalin, Shutterstock
p. 188 Two vintage picture frames on wall in art museum, with crowd of visitors in blurred motion in background, © Amy Johansson, Shutterstock.
Images courtesy of Unsplash.com, reproduced under Creative Commons License 0:
p. 52 Thong Vo, https://unsplash.com/photos/Maf7wdHCmvo
p. 76 Eutah Mizushima, https://unsplash.com/photos/2TlAsvhqiL0
p. 196 Gabriel Santiago, h
ttps://unsplash.com/photos/1vYkQVDWXl0
p. 222 Lukasz Szmigiel, https://unsplash.com/photos/Hez3-whPnNA
Images courtesy of Morguefile.com:
p. 28, p. 116 photos by Scott Liddell at Morguefile.com
p. 36 photo by chamomile at Morguefile.com
p. 64 photo by Kemeki at Morguefile.com
p. 120 photo by clarita at Morguefile.com
p. 124 photo by Schick at Morguefile.com
Images courtesy of istock.com
p. 112 Mother and son, © anandaBGD, istock
The School of Life is dedicated to developing emotional intelligence through the help of culture – believing that a range of our most persistent problems are created by a lack of self-understanding, compassion and communication. We operate from ten physical campuses around the world, including London, Amsterdam, Seoul and Melbourne. We produce films, run classes, offer therapy and make a range of psychological products. The School of Life Press publishes books on the most important issues of cultural and emotional life. Our titles are designed to entertain, educate, console and transform.
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Small Pleasures Page 14