Our first casualty: Wedding china as a metaphor for life.
Around the new year, after weeks of toying with the idea of getting some new dishware to replace the mismatched hodge-podge we’d ended up with over the years years, I thought, Heck, let’s pull our wedding china into everyday rotation.
And so I did.
Now, every time I pull a dish out of the cupboard or put a cup into the dishwasher, I ponder my younger self.
Luckily, younger me had simple taste — no crazy colors to get dated over time. It was the ‘80s when I chose this wedding china pattern, and there was a high risk of salmon pink or teal turning up. In fact, there’s a version of this china with those very colors that would more likely have ended up at Goodwill than in our kitchen.
I was in my early twenties, and choosing “fine” china came with the bridal registry territory in those days. Not really my thing then — or now — but I played along, selecting the simplest option I could find: Hutschenreuther (because that’s what I grew up with) in Chloe Fleuron. It was all white, with a simple lily motif.
Those pretty, delicate plates, cups and saucers lived various cabinets, moved from California to Alabama and back (and all in one piece!), only to be hauled out on those rare occasions I deemed “fancy” enough to merit their use.
Mostly, they languished, too fragile to use more often.
Or so I thought.
After 27 years, it was safe to say we wouldn’t be coming up to what I’d perceived where the china’s high-falutin’ standards. So, in need of something to eat from, I figured it was about time for it to come down to our more casual level.
Every time I use it, I appreciate my younger self’s restraint.
But using this china every day is a gamble because I’m notoriously clumsy, so those pretty plates and cups and saucers will likely bite the dust sooner or later. They may have survived two cross-country moves, but they won’t weather my handling them every day. (That’s our first casualty, above.)
Sure, I could dig around and find replacements, but I’m ready to move on once these have run their course. For now, though, we’re enjoying them.
They elevate our everyday meals — and even Saturday morning coffee!
And it turns out, they’re hardier than I thought.
Which means maybe I am, too.