[stylist] The Heaven of Simple Things

[William L Houts]

HI Linda,

I'm so glad you liked this.  It's such a fine thing to belong to an 
email list where so many share my delight in small glories. Happy Monday 
to you, and here's wishing you a smiling, productive week.


--Bill







On 4/13/2015 7:38 AM, Lynda Lambert wrote:
> 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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-- 


"Oh, Sophie!  Whyfore have you eated all de cheeldren?"