[J.P. MORGAN] Saucer [detail, enlarged] from the service
                                                                                                                     for the Morgan yacht, Corsair
                                                                                                                     Mintons for T. Goode & Co. Ltd., London
                                                                                                                     circa 1891 or later
                                                                                                                     4 3/4" diameter, 1" depth
                                                                                                                     Cobalt blue rim w/ gilt, polychrome monogram,
                                                                                                                     "CORSAIR" on blue banner surmounted by 
                                                                                                                     crossed pennants
                                                                                                                     Author's collection

The distinction between Luxury and Necessity is being drawn more and more sharply these days, but I think you will agree with me that a china service for your yacht is not an item you want to make do without.  With deep saucers to catch the spills in case of stormy weather.  Economizing with paper plates under the circumstances would be ill-advised, like a good designer suit worn with cheap socks and fake Rolex.  End of discussion.

J.P. Morgan's yachts were all named Corsair; the first in 1880, the second in 1891, the last launched in 1930 [its subsequent tragic fate told Here].  Each was bigger and nicer than its predecessor, but Morgan kept giving them away to the government for use in various wars, which must have been hard on the china.  One can only imagine the chips and cracks and losses incurred from rough handling by some young sailor below deck, not so much careless as distracted as he would have to be, of course, fighting the enemy on the high seas and looking for mines and submarines.  I should not be surprised at all to learn very little of the original service survived active duty.  

But Morgan, like my mother, knew that sometimes pretty things get broken and it can't be helped, especially with children (or sailors or bankers) around.  That's why God invented Elmer's Glue.  Morgan even sailed the Corsair with a bunch of recalcitrant railroad executives on board around and around Manhattan until they came to their senses and got down to business.  In like fashion Morgan saved the country from the Panic of 1907, when it looked like the banks were going to fail.  He raised $25 million in twenty minutes.  He had gold sent over from Europe.  As Slate asked over a year ago, who was going to be J.P. Morgan this time?  Warren Buffet?  Where was the guy with the yacht? 

This time was a little different.  Who, of all the unspeakably wealthy, was going to come to the rescue and clean up their own mess?  "Don't all speak at once," as my mother used to say to the silence when there were dishes to be done.  

I don't know about you, but I for one am relieved I don't have a yacht to staff and stock.  It's a lot of work, and as Morgan himself said when someone asked, if you need to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it.  My mother's use of the phrase, "We can't afford it," was similar but slightly more erratic, tied to her mood and how much more she could take of my begging for things in the aisles of the Five and Dime. A lot of the things you want in this life are expensive.  Want, however, is not the same as Need.    

What's a luxury?  I grew up in a part of the country where there were antique shops that posted poems about things being pretty to look at and hold but if you break it, it would be sold to your dad who would warn you with a look not to touch anything if you valued your life or planned on ever sitting down again when he got you home.  If he didn't just leave you on the side of the road.  None of which, obviously, was ever said, but which you inferred, and it made a great deal of sense, as cause and effect relationships tend to.  I grew up in a part of the country at a time when some folks used to think canned goods were a luxury.  My family shopped in town but the common wisdom was, why bother with a lot of store-bought stuff when you have a garden and a deep freeze full from hunting season?  Even my grandmother put up preserves.  I remember peaches out of Mason jars with labels written on masking tape.  Now there are meth labs in the woods where our neighbors used to go to shoot squirrels and deer.  Times change.

For some reason, however, every time I'm in the store lately, I pick up a couple cans, and not just for the food drive (although that too), and yes, I've just read Cormac McCarthy's The Road so maybe that's part of it -- stocking up for some nameless boy and his father to come along and find my stash when I'm gone. 

But I must say, when I look at those neat rows of cans of lima beans and Campbell's soup and Borden's condensed milk and Dole pineapple rings and peach halves in syrup lined up on the cupboard shelf, I feel taken care of.  Grateful, even.  I bask in the luxurious abundance of a cupboard of canned goods.  And I feel prosperous.