Thread by @swardley

X : Why do you go on about cups of tea?
Me : Bizarre. I like a cup of tea.
X : It's just boiled water with leaves.
Me : Very Douglas Adams. It's more than that, to me anyway.
X : I don't understand.
...

Me : Have you ever been to Hawaii, driven a Porsche or flown in a private jet?
X : Yes
Me : I haven't.
X : So?
Me : Have you ever been so poor you had to forgo eating to pay a bill, found yourself homeless, borrowed from others as you had nothing left.
X : No
Me : I have.
...

X : I don't understand.
Me : Has life been good to you?
X : I've worked hard.
Me : You've never suffered any hardship?
X : No
Me : Well you have. The joy I get from just sitting on the bank of a river having a cup of tea is probably joy you could never imagine.
...

... to understand something, you need to suffer an absence of it. I'm lucky because my life hasn't always been easy. I take incredible pleasure in the most simple things. It's you, with a life of ease, that has really suffered. You will probably never know what joy really is.

X : That's an unkind thing to say, I'm happy.
Me : Really? Do you ever feel a longing in your heart, a feeling that something is missing in life?
X : Sure, but everyone does.
Me : I don't. I have a cup of tea and everything is good. I am content with the most simple of things.

... it's difficult to describe and I don't mean to be unkind or mock your life, it's your life and it's important to you. But I find happiness in contentment and that requires the most simple of things. A cup of tea, a good chat .. it doesn't require much.