How do you know when something’s really broken? Is there an in-between stage or is it just broken or not? Assuming that there is, is it better to get rid of it when it starts to break or hold on until the end? And why do simple actions turn into big philosophical questions for the Wilson children?
I chipped my coffee cup yesterday. Not a little chip that’s kind of cute, but a big chunk out of the side of the dark blue cup that now reveals a starkly contrasting white inside. I’m convinced that this would be a simple event for anyone else. It’s ugly, throw it away. Instead, for the past two days I keep glancing over at it (carefully placed by the side of my computer so others can’t see its imperfections) wondering if I should do the unthinkable and put it in my trash can. It still holds water, it’s served me faithfully for a year or so, my job is about reducing waste, and yet everything in our culture tells me to throw it away and I’m slightly ashamed of my imperfect coffee cup and then ashamed for being so superficial that an old potentially broken coffee cup embarrasses me. If it was a model it would be Cindy Crawford, but…now she’s over the hill and doing tv commercials for furniture company so what does that tell you?
If I really think of my coffee cup (which shouldn’t even be called a coffee cup because it only ever holds tea, water, and emergen-c) as a person or even a relationship, then the past year would tell me to throw it away. Why keep something around because it’s been around for a while, when we all know that that seemingly harmless chip could turn into a crack and then one day I end up scalded by hot tea and cursing the shards of cup in my lap…better to play it safe and trash it…right? Or is it better to keep the idealistic view that imperfections can be beauty and a sign of strength? Maybe my coffee cup will serve me for years and can become a teaching tool for how we view waste culturally.
For now it’ll continue to peek at me from the edge of the desk until I either get the courage to bring it into full view imperfections and all, or I learn to cut attachments and move forward. Either way the coffee cup probably thinks I’m nuts and after all of this and definitely deserves a name.
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- Country or City Girl
- On March 13, 2020 we left the City for a three day weekend in the Country. We were going to, "The Property" where I grew up in East TX & more than two months later we are still here. This is the story of a Country girl who moved to the City and came "home" during a global pandemic.
3 comments:
You should 'accidentally' throw it out the window and let it shatter into a thousand pieces, each individually imperfect, on the pavement below, thus rendering it wholly obsolete and so resolving your conundrum.
I would volunteer my own capable clumsy hands, but it'd hafta wait 'til Christmas...
I am so excited about finding your blog!
Is your coffee cup very pretty? Could you break if up and make something out of it?!
If only my window opened then I could combine both of your ideas. Yes, I could walk out to the outside staircase and throw it off but it would seem much more symbolic to throw it out of the actual office.
I do have a volunteer who likes to make mosaics out of trash, so maybe she'll get an under appreciated cup on her door step.
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