The Lotus Eater

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** Now accepting date requests in Seoul - Hong Kong for the months of Aug-Sep. ** A mysterious island where its inhabitants live in a perpetual state of euphoric intoxication? A life of eternal bliss and joyful surrender? Sign me up, I say! I was still in high school when I first read about the lotophages in the Odyssey. Of all the villanous creatures the seafarers had to contend with, the lotus eaters seemed the odd ones out. Monsters, witches, vengeful gods they were not. They didn't threaten to eat, curse or kill the Greeks. But, our teacher said, the danger they posed was far more insidious. What they did was to lure the crew into sharing their lifestyle of unrestrained pleasure-seeking. And what's so very wrong with that, I thought. But I didn't say it out loud in class. Even then I knew of the stigma attached to people who went against societal norms. I didn't read the story as a cautionary tale against corruption and vice, or one about the seductive powers of narcotics induced oblivion. The lotus eaters were not a bunch of debauched addicts. What the bards described as apathy and a refusal to face the real world, I read as a conscious decision to strive for a life of peaceful contentedness away from the mainstream. Who among us has not dreamed of escaping the everyday, to sweep away that which is dull or tedious and walk down a different path? A path to what? For some it's passion and pleasure. For others it's to indulge in something noncommittal and fleeting. To be someone else, or be exactly themselves. The letting go of restraints and inhibitions. An unleashing of pent-up desires. The numbing of pain, grief, loneliness. The lure of the strange, a curiosity to dabble. The thrill of the forbidden. Whatever your reason for becoming a lotus eater, your journey of discovery has brought you here. To those who yearn for secret trysts in secret places - I want to walk down those corridors with you. To those who feel caged by the boundaries of convention - I want to explore the hidden parts of you. To those who feel exhausted by the demands of the world - I want to create a space where worries fade and time stands still. This is my enchanted island. These are my lotus years. This is where we meet. Zoey Chant