Ready to be Polished

This is my silver spoon.  I do not have any memories attached to this item beyond my mom handing it to me one day with a small bundle of my baby things, saying "Here. This was yours."  I found it again looking for something else in an ornate box made out of scraps of picture frame.  Something I made when I worked as a picture framer over a decade ago. 

I called my mom to ask her about the spoon but she doesn't remember.  She said that was a long time ago.  She's right.  She's 88 now.  I'm 44 now.  She has lived a full life. Thinking hard she said she believes it was likely given to me by my Uncle Doug and Aunt Ann at my christening.  My godparents. Wonderful people.  Many happy memories with them.  My mom said she fed me with it when I was a baby.  She remembers that.

I don't recall being fed with it.  It is not an item I keep out in the open to track like a shepherd dog.  I did look up the saying "born with a silver spoon" and found some pretty interesting history and cultural references.  It was fun to think about how those references could be turned into a painting.  I thought of using the references to tell an ironic tale.  But the nature of this project is not for me to reflect on what I don't have or what I didn't have when I was a child.  I've done that long enough.  I want to reflect on abundance.  Simple, honest, from-the-heart, overflowing abundance. 

I've never polished the spoon.  I think I'll make that my own first connection.  I'll take my time, looking at every angle.  Every detail.  Then I'll have some soup with it.  Homemade.  Chicken soup. Like my mom use to make.  Maybe Ethan will want to use it too.  I imagine he will.  He loves using unique cutlery.

If I'm going to carry something around with me for the rest of my life, I want it not to be because I think I should.  I want it to be because it holds some real meaning for me.  A positive story.  A story that I can share with the next hand I place it in.  A humble thread of history that holds the potential to aid in weaving a rich tapestry of interconnected hearts and minds.