Things Are Just Things........

e·phem·er·al

əˈfem(ə)rəl/

adjective

adjective: ephemeral

1. 1.

   lasting for a very short time.

   "fashions are ephemeral"

   synonyms:

   transitory, transient, fleeting, passing, short-lived, momentary, brief, short; More temporary, impermanent, short-term; fly-by-night "last year's ephemeral fashions"

   antonyms:

   permanent

   • (chiefly of plants) having a very short life cycle.

noun

noun: ephemeral; plural noun: ephemerals

1. 1.

   an ephemeral plant.

When I watched the movie version, the claymation version, of The Little Prince I learned of the word ephemeral.  The Prince had made friends with a rose, a plant.  When the prince met a character who looked like Mark Twain, the man told the Prince gruffly that his rose was ephemeral. The Prince was very sad as he had full belief that his relationship with the rose was going to be permanent and thought the rose had mislead him by making him thing the flower would live forever. The story goes on and on reminding the boy that people come and go and he should look up to the stars and see all his close relationships smiling down at him. 

I now have declared "THINGS" really are ephemeral and in my older age that I need to rethink keeping  all this stuff that I have.  What brings this great discussion up is because of

the happening last night when the above green mug fell and shattered.  My wife felt bad but I didn't.  It really was only a brief walk with history as I remember my parents having orange mugs like this and my grandma had various colored one.  I found the mug in the dirtiest, filthiest old box in my father in laws run down, falling down garage.  He probably got it at an auction in a box of junk and he just tossed it aside like junk. It really was pride that I had saved it and cleaned it and used it a little.  It became a water glass for the bathroom sink. 

The bird watering dish is glass and it too will never work on any of my cages.  It is impractical as the bird has to reach through bars to get to the water.  I have it as a rescued item because I do remember having two for feeding my green bird out on the farm back in the 60's.  I guess it is the memories it has that it belongs in my museum. When I go  it will have to go to the dump.

The  cereal bowl is old.  It is stoneware and I remember eating oatmeal from it as a kid back in the 50's. I think it was from a cafe of the 40's.  I think my mom liked using them as the oatmeal would be very hot and the cereal would warm the bowl.  That kept the heat in while you piled lost of brown sugar and milk on the food.  I remember it most in our old drafty house down on the farm when it was cold in every single corner and hot in the center of the house. Mornings were pretty frosty and a blanket rapped around me kept me warm while eating breakfast.

 The never ending jar collections too causes me to remember the products and the great colors of the glass are neat.  Rescued jars from a dump are fun as you pull out the prized piece to store on a shelf on in a box.  You can't put all of them in the kitchen window. A resourceful person could maybe sell the bunch for someone else to hold in a box or set on a shelf.  I do still like having them around but they too could be tossed in an instant.

More of the same and they too have not been cleaned in this photo just like the ones above.  Oh, I just noticed the green mug of which is now gone. 

A good thing to keep is the velvet rabbit that belonged to my wife.  The stuff animal does have a higher place in order of older things. I guess things that are hot in the auction market does make them less ephemeral also.

I had seriously thought about making my theme to be "Why did you share that picture?" but I made a pass on it.  As I go through my archives I do think many of them are for instant "show and tell" and not really great to be showing.

The coffee mug that I lost doesn't mean that I have no more prized mugs to use.  This mug sits by my tools for function while I was rebuilding my ever famous blue gate. This mug was rescued from the landfill in the now closed Osceola dump.  I found this mug, three nice bowls and a plate that had been tossed into the garbage.  The truck drove the trash all the way up a very tall incline in order to dump the refuse. Anyone who shops Walmart knows that they are the early forms of what is sstil being sold today.  Free is a factor for my hoarding too as I think the mug has been place high in the cupboards as more mugs have replaced its importance in my collection.

I really need to add this one as this is the mug my wife picked out during our honeymoon trip back in 1984.  It was bought at a shop on the hilly town of Cripple Creek in Colorado.  The guy at the shop took us into his basement to show the silver that still is in seams of the rock all up and down the area.  That mug is a historical ephemeral piece.  Yes it could be gone in an instant but historically is is important to hold the memories and maybe the kids will like to keep it on their bathroom sink.

Yes the flower is ephemeral as it doesn't stick around for only a season but we work hard to keep the plant alive for as long as we can.  We can make new friends with its blooms each spring and know that it will continue to enhance our lives each year. 

I am in Saturday school today so I bless you with too many words.  The head of the city where Mozart played a concert was forced to criticize Mozart's work.  The only real thing he could think of was that he had "too many notes." Mozart asked back which notes should he eliminate. As with me I did have 'too many words'.   My time seems to be taken up with so many things right now that I couldn't take new photographs.  I tried to find my photos of antique valentines but they are buried on the other computer.  I didn't get called in to do this duty today until 8:00 last night.  We went out for a meal at Olive Graden and stopped at the bookstore for a short while. 

The neighbor lady is better as she returned from the hospital a few days ago.  My wife and I are her chief caretakers at first since it was a weekday that she came home.  The dog has been in my care almost two weeks. We have been her emergency person before but I think her three kids might fill in this weekend for us.  Important things like oxygen tanks and taking the pills needs to be attended to immediately and not whenever a child of hers can drop in, so we were there when she first came home to get her settled in again.  I am hoping her oxygen thing can be reduced to zero within the next week.  Her lungs are in bad shape from smoking for so long and so hard that they need to heal from a serious copd attack.  I will check in at noon today to be sure the dog gets fed and that she gets something to eat. I believe a daughter is coming in this afternoon and we will have some time off.  We do know what it is like to need someone to lean on when the need is immediate and we are so glad we can do it.

 

Thank you for stopping in today.  I see we have the next snow starting to fall.  I hope you all are a safe out there throughout the world. Do be careful.