Bob the Unbeliever
Well-Known Member
Preface: I put this under "Philosophy" as it seemed most apropos. I wrote this over on FaceBook, and decided I rather liked it, so I'm reposting here. As some of you know, my mother has passed recently, and I say this to put the following in context. (Mods: If there is a more appropriate venue, please feel free to move this elsewhere. Personally, I think Philosophy includes "Love", else what is it good for? 
)
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So. I was taking one last walk-through of my dad's old house (we are selling on the 15th). And I took another look in kitchen, and there on a bottom shelf, was ... a Red Plate.
.. and it struck me... that was my Red Plate. That was The One And Only Red Dinner-Plate!
I flashed back to when I was 2 or 3 (no later than 4) and mom would sometimes fix me lunch or breakfast or whatnot, on this very same red plate. It was my favorite plate of all time, when I was shorter than a chair.
*sigh*
As I grew up, mom eventually quit using that plate, as she was able to afford nice dinnerware that matched-- and my sense of OCD reluctantly agreed, matching plates was more pleasing to the eye, than a set of miss-matched, different colored plates we'd been using up until then.
Mom had many better sets of dinnerware over the years, from those very early melamine hard-plastic things, to Corelle, to China to Stoneware, and a host of different styles and function.
But throughout all those varying styles? She had hung on to my Red Plate. That's my Mom-- there was a Story In That Plate, so she kept it, if at the bottom of a stack of better quality plates...
So, yeah, I took it home.
Do you know what's funny? It's not even ceramic-- it's some sort of coated plastic thing, likely cost $1 or less, back-when-- in a *set*.... worthless, really, even as an antique.
But. It Is Absolutely Priceless--- for it reminds me of a mother's endless love, and a child's simple joy and delight just because of the color of a round plastic disc.
) _________
So. I was taking one last walk-through of my dad's old house (we are selling on the 15th). And I took another look in kitchen, and there on a bottom shelf, was ... a Red Plate.
.. and it struck me... that was my Red Plate. That was The One And Only Red Dinner-Plate!
I flashed back to when I was 2 or 3 (no later than 4) and mom would sometimes fix me lunch or breakfast or whatnot, on this very same red plate. It was my favorite plate of all time, when I was shorter than a chair.
*sigh*
As I grew up, mom eventually quit using that plate, as she was able to afford nice dinnerware that matched-- and my sense of OCD reluctantly agreed, matching plates was more pleasing to the eye, than a set of miss-matched, different colored plates we'd been using up until then.
Mom had many better sets of dinnerware over the years, from those very early melamine hard-plastic things, to Corelle, to China to Stoneware, and a host of different styles and function.
But throughout all those varying styles? She had hung on to my Red Plate. That's my Mom-- there was a Story In That Plate, so she kept it, if at the bottom of a stack of better quality plates...
So, yeah, I took it home.
Do you know what's funny? It's not even ceramic-- it's some sort of coated plastic thing, likely cost $1 or less, back-when-- in a *set*.... worthless, really, even as an antique.
But. It Is Absolutely Priceless--- for it reminds me of a mother's endless love, and a child's simple joy and delight just because of the color of a round plastic disc.
