Romance vs Risk Averse.

I remember writing a post once about the fact that modern trains have doors with non-opening glass panels rather than windows which you could slide down. The change was wrought for the sake of safety as we know, but I remarked that leaning out of the window to wave to someone you were leaving behind, or alternatively who was awaiting your arrival, had a certain element of romance to it which is now denied. The pleasure of waving to a loved one as the train rounded a bend beyond the station is no longer available.

Yesterday my mind turned to the atmosphere of coffee shops, and how that atmosphere is greatly augmented by the characteristic smell. In the days before smoking was banned in public buildings for safety’s sake, the smell was a cocktail of fresh coffee mingled with the aromatic scent of various types of tobacco. It might have been the classic ‘old socks’ smell of Turkish or French cigarettes, or it might have been the spicy scent of St Bruno or Condor pipe tobacco. (Even non-smokers were hard pressed to claim disliking the smell of pipe tobacco or the evocative aroma of cigars at Christmas.)

And so I propose the assertion that making life safer is a process of sanitising life which in so doing removes certain subtle but deeply felt sources of pleasure. It might help us to live a few years longer, but it also invites the question: does it make life better?

I offer no definitive answer, but I do think it’s worth asking the question.