[stylist] The Heaven of Simple Things

[Lynda Lambert]

Hi Bill,
As always, I enjoyed reading your thoughtful, little soliloquy this morning. 
I had just finished that cup of coffee you mentioned. I brewed the coffee 
with my fancy, high tech machine with the bells and whistles and the 
whirling Dervish on the side. But in the cupboard, just in case I need it, 
the old carafe coffee maker is hidden away for an emergency.  I even have a 
real percolator coffee pot - you know the kind with the metal basket where 
the coffee goes - and the water heats up to a boil - and you can see it 
percolating up into the glass knob on the top of the coffee pot. Now, that 
is rich, delicious coffee!  These days I use that little metal coffee pot on 
the stove to brew my teas made from the wild plants and leaves I gather and 
dry in the sun.  On winter days, I enjoy those teas and use them as medicine 
when needed as well.  Gathering the plants and leaves  Each method of 
brewing coffee and teas has its own special delight.  Yes, I can relate to 
the heaven you find in the kitchen and in the small mundane things in our 
lives. We are rich beyond words when we begin to recognize the glory to be 
found in the everyday.

I could actually use your expertise right now. I ordered a wonderful sewing 
cabinet through Amazon. It arrived in a slim,  heavy box, all in layers and 
pieces.  A friend came and built it for me and I was in heaven because it 
looked so nice in my library and it was just what I needed for the times 
when I am working on my talismans.  But, alas! I went to move the table and 
the rolling wheels dug into the carpet and as I pushed it forward, one wheel 
popped out of place.  The wheel will have to be put back where it belongs by 
someone who know how to do such things - and it certain would not be me!  I 
think my cabinet will have to be turned upside down to investigate how the 
wheel can be put back in place. But, for now, I have the cabinet balanced on 
that corner by a container which was just the right thickness to hold it 
steady and level.  I will try to keep in mind that once we do figure out 
what to do to put the contrary wheel  back in place, it will be a 
supernatural, almost heavenly experience. Thank you for that reminder this 
morning.

Lynda McKinney Lambert

-----Original Message----- 
From: William L Houts via stylist
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2015 7:48 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: [stylist] The Heaven of Simple Things



Hey Blinky Colleagues:

I just posted this on Facebook.  I think it's pretty good for such an
early morning post, and thought I'd share it with you all; a bit of
reading to do, maybe, over your morning cup.


--Bill


---


This morning, I've been thinking about the heaven in tiny things. How it
is that we Americans seem to be driven by ideas about wealth and
celebrity, so
often supposing that the real life, with the real people, the real money
is somewhere down the road rather than in our kitchens, our garages, our
bedrooms.
But I've been thinking lately that you can find heaven in tiny homebody
revelations. For me, I feel a deep satisfaction when things simply work
the way
they're supposed to. For instance, I'm fascinated by coffee makers. We
use the simplest sort at our house, without all the bells and timers and
dancing
iguanas which come with your more expensive models. And the thing which
gets me every time is the way the coffee drips down through a hole in
the lid and
into the carafe. I mean, isn't that just the best and tiniest glory? The
coffee percolates and it was someone's job at the factory, maybe the job
of several
someones, to make sure that the ready hot coffee would drip through the
lid and into the carafe without splashing, each and every time you brew
some. It's
miraculous!

Another time, I was sitting at my computer in a chair I had bought from
Keeg's on Broadway, if anyone remembers that Sunday morning Capitol Hill
destination
which has been gone for twenty years or more, so passes the glory of the
world. And one morning I was sitting in the chair and the left arm rest
became
detached from the back of the chair. I looked at the arm rest and I
could see that the screw which held one thing to another had become
unscrewed. The
thing about this was that the screw was a peculiar octagonal thing, and
it called for a peculiar octagonal screwdriver to wind it back into
place. Well,
as it happens, I recognized the gauge from a toolkit I had bought for my
mountain bike. So I fit the weird screw back into the hole, dug out the
Swiss
Army-like bike tool and wound the naughty screw back into place, drawing
armresst and back into their perfect marriage once again. I remember the
thrill
I felt when I realized that this was all working exactly the way it
should work. There had been a breakdown, but I had recognized the
problem, realized
that I had the right tool to address it, and set to work. The whole
incident took less than five minutes and I was back in business. I
remember the tiny
ecstatic groan given out by the octagonal screw as it wound back down
into its seat. You can go through many years of feeling that nothing is
working quite
the way it's supposed to. You don't get to date that hot redhead, you
don't get the higher paying position at work, the cake you tried to
bake, the one
with the chocolate raspberry frosting which looked so good on the box
falls flat. But on this one occasion --and there have been several like
it in my
life; I'm not as sad as all that-- I had exactly the right tool for the
problem, and set to work, and Lady Universe grinned her big gummy grin,
and I heard
that happy groan, and I was back in business.

Now, almost nobody, and certainly nobody we're likely to know, ever wins
the lottery. And it's just a numbers thing, an odds thing, and nobody's
punishing
us or mocking us or trying to make us feel sad. But maybe as a culture,
we would do better to step away from the Big Media version of success,
of celebrity
and wealth, and prepare ourselves for that tiny ecstatic groan, that
cosmic Yes which comes to every one of us now and then. I think we might
be richer
and happier if we did.


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