We're here to talk about seating arrangements in photos like this one from AirBNB (Look closely, there are a couple rocking chairs on the porch): ![[5e86de00-eca8-4f36-a458-38a8d5d5925b.jpg.webp]] Or even this one. Chairs and loungers everywhere! ![[a995c2a8-331a-4a78-8536-f9506b198d91.jpeg.webp]] Roman Mars said chairs are like placeholders for people and pictures like these tell a story. You can tell this isn't just someone's home. This is where vacation happens, baby! Look closely at the apparitions of people around the property. They're gathered around the fire. They're up there with the grill king laying back. You'd better believe these folks are on vacation and loving it. Hell, some of them are on the lower deck just lying back and taking in the view of the grass. Or my favorite can be found at least once on pretty much any listing on Zillow. Got some empty space? Park a couple chairs and a little bistro table there. Suddenly this corner of the porch is your own little French café. Oh là là. ![[Screenshot 2024-01-09 at 4.24.50 PM.png]] ![[Screenshot 2024-01-09 at 5.02.29 PM.png]] My question is, does anyone really sit at these things? ![[Screenshot 2024-01-09 at 4.28.41 PM.png]] Let me be clear, I'm not talking about this. Dining areas are different. We have to eat. I'm talking about the placeholders for human beings who seem to be in between meals but not about to devote themselves to the next thing on their list. They speak to something different—aspirational about how we expect ourselves to be as human beings and particularly how we see ourselves *properly* enjoying ourselves in moments of leisure. Leisure surely looks something like this: ![[c448ea4f-2969-4a81-85a2-90b373b2e5d0.jpg.webp]] ![[2e0b5660-6d53-4db9-b532-913d6c03b666.jpeg.webp]] The reason we're never sitting at these things isn't because they're actually poor spots to sit and sip a coffee (although this is also often the case). It's because we don't actually make the leap to pause and just enjoy where we are with such fervor we'll simply pour a tea, sit on the porch, and just *be.* No umbilical cord coupling us to a task at hand nor the next one to come. It's time we actually stop and enjoy the comfort we've worked so hard leading up to this moment to give ourselves. But we don't sit in these chairs. We're unpacking. We're eating. We're getting out of the place so we can go *do something.* It's the not-doing that is so hard to execute, yet we seem to understand vividly what it means to let ourselves experience this kind of pleasure and this is evident in the universal way we connect with photos like this: ![[Screenshot 2024-01-09 at 4.35.10 PM.png]] We know true leisure could look like this. We're going to just sit and face each other. No agenda. No need for tables because we have no need for things. The primacy of a fire keeping us warm is so adequate for this moment of enjoyment that we're happy to have the house inconveniently many steps away. ![[Screenshot 2024-01-09 at 4.38.24 PM.png]] These are the stagings because we know this is what draws people in to renting our AirBNB or buying our house. It is the correct representation of what your life could be. If only you were here, you could be sitting in one of these chairs with your lover or your friend, a hot cup of cocoa in hand. Finally you could be at peace. ![[6a338869-391c-43ac-81be-ed4816b7012c.jpg.webp]] Yet not only are we not sipping our cocoa during these stays, we somehow miss out on this basic state of enjoyment at home, where we also have chairs and limited table space, and you get to stay as long as you want! I like the way Ram Dass put it: >It's always somewhere else. It's *out there* somewhere. There is something distasteful about being content in the present moment when there is always somewhere else and sometime else. Surely *out there* is where the one day present moment will be the right present to be in, but now? and here? Never mind that, come look at this AirBNB listing for our trip coming up. Wouldn't that be nice just you and me sitting on the veranda sipping our Chamomile and looking out over the landscape? That's **going to be** so nice when we're **there**. _Also see: [[Being Present]]_