After having lived 20 of my 33 years less than a hundred miles from the Biltmore Estate and a year and a half less than ten miles from it, I finally went for a visit with K and the Folks this Sunday.

Much to my disappointment, though not surprising, the current owners have enacted a strict prohibition of all photography within the house itself — if such a structure can be called a “house.” At 175,000 square feet (16,258 square meters), it’s probably larger than many palaces.

Wandering through the house, the notion of such living is so completely foreign as to be unimaginable, even when you’re literally standing in the proof.

To think of living without having to give a single thought to money, to physical needs — indeed, even to dressing yourself — is for us probably what the majority of the world feels when they think of those of us fortunate enough to have been born in the developed world.