Common Scents: CK1

I was bought a bottle of Calvin Klein's CK1 back in 1997 for a birthday by a school friend. It is now retailing for £76 (better deals can always be found) though it would have been much cheaper thirty years ago. I therefore resolved to only use it on special occasions and 'going out' because if its cost. The result is that I now associate its scent with student life, as well as weddings and parties from the nineties and early 2000s. I have just sprayed myself with it and a number of distant memories have rekindled.

Fifteen years ago, I had a lodger. He needed somewhere to live and the money he gave me paid for a new kitchen, so all was well. Upon leaving my home for his new girlfriend’s, I noticed a number of small pieces of furniture had disappeared too, like mirrors, some of which were returned on request (others, like bedding, I wrote off). I also noticed that he had taken my CK1, and had used most of it by the time it was brought back, for he must have been fond of it too. Whether he was simply careless, or wished to conserve his own precious stocks, I never discovered. Yet this little bottle of perfume which I had been carefully saving had been largely spent on another’s face and neck, regularly, for several months. I was reminded of Ecclesiastes 6:

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honour, so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil affliction.

Henry VII hoarded money but his profligate son, who became Henry VIII, spent it all, while leaving his own son, Edward VI, an impoverished crown. What we save, store, hide and accumulate may one day be wasted and spent by others. So use it now, and do good. Enjoy it now, and honour God with it while He still lends you breath.

Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. Matthew 25:28-29

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