Jaded – Trying to recapture the first time.

I lived in a small town in a very backward state in India. A trip to the city – Patna - was a big deal. Patna had good bread and pastries. It even had a video arcade parlor with three video games. You could shoot fish and play pacman. It was super amazing. It even had a Chinese fast food joint. Every trip to Patna was something I looked forward to.

As I grew older we left Patna behind and reached Delhi. The pastry choices were more as were the video games. They had buildings with more than four floors. Patna was so yesterday.

Then I made it to the US. I was wowed by an apartment complex in San Diego on my first day there. It looked like a five star hotel to me. The beach was so clean and beautiful and the food - I stood gasping at Safeway's bakery pastry display. Disneyland was everything I imagined and more. The fireworks at night were out of the world to me. You could see the joy on my face at every turn.

Huge Chocolate Flowers on display at Aria, Vegas.

Then somewhere along the way I saw it all. Disneyland looks a little old now. The lines to the rides are seen before the ride. The huge lollipop is not that huge and Mickey’s ears have been done a few too many times. Pastries need to be works of art and studded with sugar master pieces to get me to smile. It takes a forty-foot chocolate fountain to get me to raise an eyebrow. The beaches are clean and blue and still make me smile but it is not the same yelpy – I got to jump in the water right now – feeling.

So, what do you do when you are jaded? You have seen too much. When little things don’t do it for you anymore? Well, then you work on derived joy. Get someone who has not done these things before and pile onto their joy. Have a kid - raise the kid a little and see these things through their eyes. Take a four year old to see the fireworks. Take a four year old to Disneyland. Treat a relative that has not been able to travel much to a trip to the beach. Take some pretty pastries to an orphanage.  Take your mother-in-law for an awesome pedicure.

Lalitha and Aisha at the beach.

I took my housekeeper and my mother’s housekeeper to Goa with us. Watching them learn about and thoroughly enjoy the lavish buffets was more filling than the food. Plates filled high with treats, second and third helpings reminded me of my first buffet in Vegas. Seeing grown women walk into the sea for the first time. Watching them sit and giggle – yes giggle – as the waves tried to push them ashore. The derived joy I had was very similar to my first trip at the beach.

So, I may not want that extra-large lollipop at Disney for me anymore but I must say watching a two year old wonder where to start licking it is something. That’s beating Jaded.