This is the season to celebrate decadence. We revel in it, luxuriate in it, and encourage it in ourselves and others. This is not just about indulgence—a certain amount of decadence is good for your body, soul, and mental health. Even the Romans (no strangers to decadence themselves) maintained that it was the individual’s responsibility to take care of themselves for the good of the group.

So show some self-love. Make hard times a little easier; make good times that much better.

Take this quiz, for example. We invite you to curl up and reflect on your answers. Each time you say yes to one of our questions, give yourself a point. For every no, ask yourself, Why not?

Come back after a month and see how your score changes. Consider this a progress report.

  1. Tasted chocolate
  2. Worn yellow gloves
  3. Bought yourself a present and had it gift-wrapped
  4. Painted a room any color other than eggshell
  5. Felt bored in polite society
  6. Drunk wine
  7. Been drunk
  8. Had your portrait drawn or painted
  9. Acted in a play
  10. Been kissed on the lipsFallen in love with a sculptor
  11. Had your nails done
  12. Had groceries delivered
  13. Decided that whipped cream is just so worth it
  14. Spent a weekend in a country house
  15. Set your table with cloth napkins
  16. Worn velvet in daylight … all day
  17. Listened to an opera all the way through
  18. Taken a boat trip to another country
  19. Made up a story about yourself to tell at a party
  20. Met a member of royalty
  21. Had a lover
  22. Had more than one lover in a day
  23. Called in sick so you could stay in bed reading
  24. Decided that your life should imitate art, or at least try to
  25. Started a zoo, in your own small way
  26. Spent too much on a signed work of art
  27. Had a fantasy about a demimondaine
  28. Posed for erotic photographs
  29. Sung an aria
  30. Decorated with peacock feathers
  31. Been to a bar
  32. Been to a brothel
  33. Considered that love might be mostly pain, but you’re still on board
  34. Studied French
  35. Eaten something your parents would not have considered food
  36. Groomed parts of your body most people never see
  37. Swum naked at night
  38. Bought matching bath towels in rich jewel tones
  39. Eaten a lot of chocolate
  40. Spent Saturday morning organizing your copies of Enchanted Living
  41. Wandered through an ancient ruin
  42. Seriously considered moving to Venice
  43. Painted anything in your home gold
  44. Invested in a marble floor or tabletop … or at least marbled paper
  45. Colored your hair
  46. Done performance art
  47. Splurged on fabric for curtains and pillows
  48. Tasted real Irish butter
  49. Bought a coffee-table book
  50. Worn earrings more than an inch long
  51. Put on more than three bracelets at a time
  52. Tried absinthe
  53. Smoked opium
  54. Slept in satin sheets
  55. Worn black lace underwear
  56. Earnestly debated the merits of Art Nouveau vs. the Arts and Crafts movement
  57. Read Baudelaire in translation
  58. Read Baudelaire in the original
  59. Attended a live performance of an Oscar Wilde play
  60. Painted your lips very dark red
  61. Had a crush on a nun or a priest
  62. Piled pillows in an odd corner of your home and curled up there to dream
  63. Danced all night
  64. Fought a duel
  65. Bought a book printed before 1900
  66. Read that copy—books are for reading, after all
  67. Turned up the lights so you could see … everything … better
  68. Dimmed the lights so you could feel everything better
  69. Taken a hot, scented bath all by yourself
  70. Kissed in the rain
  71. Dressed in the clothes of a gender other than the one in which you were raised
  72. Eaten gold flakes
  73. Mixed your own signature perfume
  74. Written a poem
  75. Written a novel … longhand
  76. Grown poisonous plants on purpose
  77. Tried Turkish delight
  78. Bought a fresh set of paints mostly for that one special color you just can’t get enough of
  79. Bought yourself flowers … lots of flowers
  80. Slept during the day
  81. Danced in a church
  82. Fantasized about making love with a vampire
  83. Thought it might be more interesting to look ugly-pretty than pretty-pretty
  84. Truly believed that you can resist anything except temptation
  85. Laid a flower at Oscar Wilde’s grave (or Jim Morrison’s, nearby)
  86. Painted, written, sculpted, or otherwise crafted in the nude
  87. Sent a letter or email out of the blue to a writer or artist you admire
  88. Thought that if only you’d been hired to restore Versailles, the place really could have been something
  89. Turned off all the clocks in your house
  90. Had enough champagne … almost
  91. Hunted down a banned work of literature or art
  92. Been consumed with jealousy
  93. Seen a ghost
  94. Committed a crime
  95. Told someone you love them
  96. Kept a journal
  97. Read somebody else’s journal
  98. Counted the bones in a catacomb
  99. Decided What the hell, I’ll do it.

What your score says about you:

1-25:
You need to say yes more often.

26-50:
You know a good time when you feel one.

51-75:
Dorian Gray can’t wait to hang out.

76-100:
Even a Frenchman is a little afraid of you.

Check back in a month or so and see if anything’s changed …

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Susann Cokal is the author of four novels, including the award-winning Kingdom of Little Wounds and her latest, Mermaid Moon, in which a mermaid goes ashore to find her mother, only to fall into the clutches of a witch who wants to harvest her magic. Cokal also writes short fiction and essays about oddities, and she lives in a haunted farmhouse with cats, peacocks, spouse, and unseen beings who bump in the night. “I’ve always suspected there was more to mermaids than the shipwrecks and love stories that lead them to land,” she says. “I’m glad I had the chance to figure them out in these changing times—both in the novel and here among the creatures of Enchanted Living.”