11-24-02 Sunday Journal
STERLING SILVER ALL AROUND
By Dalton Roberts
IPS Features
I placed a writing from Faye Field
in my journal back in 1988. She told how her mother came to spend Thanksgiving
with her and as she set the table, her mother said, "I wish you had
sterling silver tableware like your sister."
She thought a moment and said, "Mother, I do have sterling silver. I have
sterling friends."
Instead of the incident detracting from the occasion, she mused while preparing
the meal over her wonderful friends. She said:
Sterling silver is beautiful. My friends are beautiful.
Sterling silver is useful. My friends are always there to help me.
Sterling silver shines. My friends shine.
Sterling silver is a precious metal. My friends are priceless.
Sterling silver is of great value. My friends are of great worth.
I do not knock those who love fine china and sterling silver tableware but such
things are strictly utilitarian to me. My tableware comes from many places. One
day as I walked along the Tennessee Riverwalk, I saw a beautiful green fork. I
added it to my collection. Every time I use it, I remember that peaceful walk
and the joy I had watching the Blue Herons along the riverbank. That's a
sterling silver memory.
My sister gave me some beautiful plates and bowls with pictures of birdhouses.
Everyone knows I love the birds and when I use it, I think of my sweet,
thoughtful sister. She's the purest sterling silver sister a man could ever
find.
My dear friend, Bob McGee, "the cracked potter", made several of my
favorite bowls. Things taste better from those bowls because they are a point of
contact with his interesting mind and good heart. He, too, is sterling silver.
Plastic emits poisons into our foods so when I buy something in a large glass
container, I save it for my nuts and pumpkin seeds. They don't look fancy but
plain glass is the most non-toxic container. That's a sterling silver thought.
Giving thanks is one of the most sterling silver fields of consciousness we ever
attain in this life. This Thanksgiving I will gather my things, like the green
fork from the Tennessee Riverwalk, my bowls, by birdhouse dishes from my sis and
have a sterling silver Thanksgiving. I hope your heart is so full of sweet
memories that you have the most sterling silver Thanksgiving of your life.
-30-