Monday, March 06, 2006

For Dawno...

So , in the comments on my test thread with the jeep pic, my dear friend Dawno said:
I am studiously staying away from the blogging by mobile option. Ya'll do not want to see what weird things I'd blog about if I could do it anytime from anywhere.

"oh, look! That cloud looks like a bunny!"

or "This is what I'm having for lunch"

or "what kind of a bug is that?"


This is my coffee-mug that goes everywhere with me. I bought it at a gas station in Maine, on a road trip, thirteen years ago.

Now, this is not going to turn into one of those blogs...You know the ones. The blogger tells you all about every detail of every day, "So, like, OMG! I totally found the cutest shoes on sale, and..."

Not gonna happen.


I was thinking though, it's funny how small items lend a sense of continuity and flow to our lives. This mug has been all over the US and Canada, with me. It's lasted longer than any relationship I've ever had. It outlived my good dog, Grady, who was with me on that trip. We camped on Bar Harbor, and there was the most amazing thunderstorm late one night in Delaware in the campground on the beach, and my gf-at-the-time got so mad at me in Ann Arbor, I thought she was going to leave me there...


And all those complex memories and emotions are keyed for me by a silly coffee mug with a cartoon lobster. We attach sentimental value to these small things, for what they tether us to. There's something sweet about that.

So, Dawno, maybe we do want to hear about that cloud that looks like a bunny, or what you had for lunch. Not because lunch is that interesting--but because the first time you ever had tempura was the time you got sold to that white-slaver ring in Shanghai...

8 comments:

Stacia said...

I've got a few things like that. A stoneware pot that was my grandfather's, that's now been all over the US and here to England with me. Whenever I use it I think of him. A bracelet my Mom bought me when I was 14 that has almost literally never been off my wrist since (the hospital made me take it off when my daughters were born.)

I love stuff like that. I'm not good with change. Having things that anchor me help.

Cute mug, btw!

Mac said...

See, that's the funny thing,Doc--I never really intended to hold onto it that long--I certainly didn't buy it thinking, "I'll treasure this silly lobster-mug forever..." I got it because I loathe styrofoam cups, and had a continent to drive across.

Then I just woke up one morning, years of changes later, and it's still here.

ohdawno said...

hmm. Maybe I should have gone with my instincts and used "does this look infected" as an example :-)

I can't tell you how thrilled I am that my little comment engendered such a wonderful post about a treasured memory.

Blog on, Mac!

Frank Baron said...

"...but because the first time you ever had tempura was the time you got sold to that white-slaver ring in Shanghai..."

I'm slapping my forehead here! That was you Dawno?!! I was in the shackles two people over! On the left! My hair was blond then. It was a sun thing. I don't believe in dye. Not opposed to all chemicals of course. Many have enriched my life.

Well...hot dang. Small world eh?

Oh yeah. Nifty mug Mac.

Wisdom Weasel said...

Small world- my fiancee is a Bar Harbor native and I lived there for 8 years. I bet you bought that mug in one of the stores operated by the company her mother works for.

She has a coffee mug from a co-op in Oregon but its not quite the same, is it? I mean you could have a Cape Cod mug and I wouldn't feel so Twilight Zone-y...

Anonymous said...

I thought the lobster was real...oh, look, I see a bunny cloud...

ohdawno said...

Frank, that must have been someone else - I was actually shanghaied in Guangdong. Easy to get confused...

*sigh* now I have to try it. Just remember, it's Mac's fault :-)

ohdawno said...

OK, I did it. :-)