Rhoneisms

My favorite Christmas present I received this year was from my wife. She found a nice set of silverplate ware at a local antique shop that is going out of business. I’m unsure of it’s age. It’s simple in style and not too ornate. The certificate says it was made so that a “family of small income can enjoy quality silverplate”. It’s not a full set. In fact, it’s mostly incomplete. But it has enough spoons, forks, and knives for our daily use.

I keep them in a stoneware vessel on our counter, separate from the stainless steel stuff we’ve had for years which, for now, remains in the drawer. It would seem a shame to hide these away like that. I find them beautiful, the sentiment touching, and it ensures they are used daily as intended.

Her idea was that it would be nice to have some real silver to use every day. That it was inexpensive enough to not treat preciously and that we could throw into the dishwasher without too much stress. That it would add a touch of elegance to each meal no matter how humble. A small lift to the ordinary. And, it does.

Not all work will be meaningful. Some will be meaningful to others but not for you. Some, will be drudgery. Some, will be necessary. Some will just be the thing you have to do until the next thing you have to do comes along until finally, after so much just-stuff, something will come along that is meaningful until, eventually, you’re done with that and doing the next thing you do because it’s just the thing you have to do. The everyday meaningful work is very rare and even then is punctuated by small bursts of just-stuff that you have to do to support the meaningful. But, the true meaning of work will come when one accepts that all work is meaningful work and none of it is and that both of these are simultaneously true.

Answer the why. With every choice you make, with every thing you do, if you can’t answer the why, why bother?