Near Iceland
There is such an extraordinary world out here, up here, to be explored. Several miles below my dining table there are aureate tops to cumulous towers that bring much needed rain to those living in the far north. Beneath these cumulous towers, Icelanders are settling in for the night, about to enjoy their evening meals cooked on geothermal energy from the hidden fires of the earth.
Out one of my four private windows a subtle lavender rim is forming on the cerulean dome that forms the plate of heaven above me. In the west the sun descends for its rest from warming life yet another day. Those around me are settling in for sleep, cozy in their beds in cocoons of white down. There is a profound sense of repose; that is the perfect word. Life is presently very quiet, very generous, and wondrous; all is very well here.
One of our three impeccably trained stewards has just inquired if this would be a good time for me to have my dinner served. How could it ever not be a good time to have fresh canapés brought to me in a white-gloved hand attached to a radiant smile? Shortly a table for two was arranged with fresh linen, silver and goblets placed, a moist towel offered for refreshment. The four guests visiting me in my cabinette were invited by one of the stewards to take their leave so I could have a quintessential dining experience with full undistracted focus. Not liking to eat alone, I began to object and then thought the better of it and kept my mouth shut. I made peace with my guests by sending back glasses of 2000 Bolinger. The steward later apologized for dismissing my guests.
As the sky transmuted from cerulean to lavender to violet and finally into deep indigo before becoming truly colorless, I managed to stretch canapés, lobster bisque, a well-oiled salad with dressing from Castello Monte Vibiano and smoked chicken with Tuscan tomato across about seven hundred miles of cumulous tops. In proper European style, a plate of sweet Marion Bleu, Herb Brie, and Kilchur Estate Cheddar was then offered with a basket of chilled fruits.
The Icelandic world has settled down for the night. My heavenly world has settled down; low-level indigo lighting washes the ceiling, creating a sense of being in a planetarium. I wonder about the people who are granted the opportunity to design and build this kind of an environment. The stewards are performing well those things they do in hidden places to create an atmosphere of amazing elegance and attentiveness for those of us that have been admitted into a place of extraordinary privilege, here in heaven.
Enjoying the after glow of a fine dining experience, I now wonder about the true nature of luxury. Is it merely having the very best of everything? Am I having an epic bigger-than-life event because it normally costs more per hour to buy this seat in heaven than most people make in a week? Is it because I can be here and you probably can’t? Am I having a peak life moment because I don’t normally eat off crystal on the top side of cumulous clouds? Because it was given to me as a grand gift? Or is true luxury the ability to have a peak life experience no matter what? As I sit here, literally in the ultimate lap of luxury; I wonder if gratitude, the queen of emotions, what makes the experience transformative. Perhaps a profound appreciation for whatever life gives us is the key.
Last Saturday I was sitting at a picnic table under an old oak tree in the middle of nowhere. A nearby herd of goats was munching away at patches of brittle brown grass. A cloud of no-see-ums buzzing around my head reminded me that first frost was still a long ways off. I was eating a meal that cost me six bucks and was wiping with a thin paper napkin. Yet, I had a peak life experience every bit as powerful as the one I am having up here in the heavenly realm. I was seated at that battered green table with a dozen good friends who took time out of their Saturday to join me for brunch at a country eatery out on a goat farm in my county. Another couple heard I was going to be at this restaurant and made the journey out there to find me. I felt like true royalty, holding court with people seeking an audience. It was glorious; a transcendent life experience. The community that comes from true friendship and shared experience has few peers.
As I sit here in the clouds with an empty chair across from my table, I am reminded of the reality that relationship is ultimately the magic ingredient that produces peak experiences in life. This incredible opportunity to see the world from the top of cumulous clouds provided for me the right to offer that chair to anyone who wanted it, at no cost to them. The only thing that could have made this epic journey better would have been the opportunity to pay it forward - to gift it to someone who could never embrace it with their own resources; to show them the plate of heaven through the lens of crystal at 40,000 feet; to watch them slumber away in a cocoon of down softer than the clouds far below.
The next time you are offered something and you believe it too good to be true, reconsider. As the great British theologian, GK Chesterton, liked to say, “Occasionally, flecks of paradise do wash up on the shores of our lives.” Today might just be your day.
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