The Exquisite Cup

I remember the day I first spotted the cup. It was a cool Autumn afternoon and I was walking past the shop windows when it stopped me in mid stride.

Standing alone on a glass shelf the cup was exquisite. Real diamonds seemed to form delicate flowers with golden stems and leaves. I had never seen a cup as beautiful. I could just picture its maker carefully putting on the finer details.

From then on I never went
past that shop without spending a few moments admiring its beauty.
It seemed untouchable, above any other cup or at least part of an elite few.

Then one wintry day on a whim I went inside the shop and asked if I could look at it up close. The shopkeeper frowned at my request. “We don’t usually allow the general public to touch our cups.”

He must have seen the disappointment in my eyes and for some unknown reason decided to humour me. He put on velvet gloves and ever so gently took it of the shelf. I felt my heart beating. To see this beauty up close, at last.

The shopkeeper suddenly gasped in horror. Then my eyes fell on what he’d seen. Inside the cup someone, probably a child, had dropped a piece of banana.

It had gone rotten, black and mouldy.

To see this awful sight in this exquisite cup was shocking indeed. How could this beautiful cup hold such ugliness. Was it even possible.

I felt a deep sadness inside me for the special cup. Maybe a plain cup has a better life. It gets used a lot but at least it fulfills its purpose. Its life has meaning beyond its outer appearance.

A plain cup gets held lovingly in hands that cradle a warm cup of tea daily. It gets dirty but never for long. It wouldn’t be left to rot. The very act of giving itself to serve also cleanses it.

The shop keeper carried the cup into the darkness of storage, where hopefully it would be restored but it had lost its appeal for me.

I went home and got my favourite tea cup. The one with the painted roses and little chip on the bottom and made myself a cup of tea.

As I caressed it between my hands I felt the same joy I felt when I first spotted the exquisite cup. I never realized I own the most exquisite cup of all.

A real one.