On Monday night I was
watching TV and knitting swatches for a workshop I’m teaching in January . My sweet-and-arthritic dog, Toby,
jumped up onto the sofa to join me, and in the process she knocked my knitting
bowl off the sofa and onto the wood floor.
The bowl broke.
This is not just any
bowl. At least to me. It was the very first thing I ever bought at
an art fair, in the 1970’s while I was a modern dance student in Salt Lake City
But, I was smitten by the
bowl from the first. I like to be
slightly mystified by art, and the glaze on the bowl mystified me. Were they butterflies? Angels?
Folded up coats? Were they
connected with a ribbon? Or a
river? Or the wind? I loved the colors: muted, mostly grey, with blues and
greens. Dreamy.
It was a shallow bowl, about
10 inches in diameter and only 4 or 5 inches deep. Since I bought that bowl, I have moved more than twenty times. And that bowl has
always gone with me.
For many years, I simply
admired the bowl. I hardly ever put
anything in it, until I started knitting.
Then I found this bowl to be a perfect knitting accessory. My yarn would tumble nicely in the bowl,
undoing any inadvertent twist I may have added to the yarn while knitting. And: I
could look at and admire the beauty of the bowl.
Now, I’ve showed this bowl
to many people over the years. And no
one has thought it as delightful as I.
This used to disappoint me, but then I came to treasure the bowl even more
because I was the only one who thought it was exceptionally beautiful. My feelings about this bowl were definitely
more about me than about the bowl. And I
came to value that.
So, when I watched the bowl
fall in slow motion toward the floor, I didn’t think it would break. After all, the bowl has been with me and
remained unscathed for over 30 years.
When it broke, I was stupefied. I
was so shocked that I couldn’t move. My
roommate took pity and swept up the debris.
She suggested I try gluing it back together.
I went to bed, supremely
depressed and not a little bit ashamed of myself for having such strong
feelings for a thing. It’s just a bowl.
I did buy super glue
yesterday. Perhaps later today I’ll put
the pieces back together.
