Member-only story

The Deep Hedonist

Raman Frey
5 min readJan 3, 2025

--

Medium amber grade A Vermont maple syrup — it was special. And it was expensive. We didn’t get it often and when we did, we made thin eggy Swedish style pancakes smeared in melting whipped butter.

As a child the world was full of the precious and the exotic, the not easily accessed, even the esoteric. Sichuan peppercorn, H&H Bagels, fresh squeezed tropical fruit juices on Miami Beach.

These were treats, to be enjoyed occasionally, when lucky, when serendipity smiled or you were in the right place at the right time and the line wasn’t too long. Sometimes they ran out. The shelves were empty.

Today, our profound convenience and speed of consumption would explode that kid’s brain. His choices were so limited by comparison.

Nearly every item I can possibly think of is a click away on my handheld supercomputer. Our massive commercial three door fridge, steel table legs to be attached to our on-site harvested live edge cedar slab, our organic bulk Assam or Pu-Er or English Breakfast teas, even the key lime oil of my childhood can be on our rural mountain doorstep within days. The convenience addiction of what I call “Lex Luthor Inc.,” for Jeff Bezos’ resemblance to Superman’s nemesis, is irresistible. In the moment of craving, in the moment of needing, click and done.

--

--

Raman Frey
Raman Frey

Responses (6)