The Pink Rose Candle

 

      In 1979 Erma Bombeck, a popular columnist, wrote an column called 'If I had My Life To Live Over'. It was a list of things that she would have done or not done if she had the chance to do it over. One of the lines from the column is, "I would have burnt the pink candle that was sculptured like a rose before it melted while being stored."

   I was thinking of this as I looked over a of box dishes that my Dad had brought from the his house in southern Minnesota. The boxes held three stacks of plates, a sugar bowl, a cream pitcher and several stacks of coffee cups. 

   This is part of the china that my mother bought before she got married. Dad said that she made payments on the set while they were dating. The pattern is very simple, white with a platinum trim. 

   The practical thing for me to do would be to give it away or sell it. The metallic trim on the edge of the dishes meant that I would not be able to use them in the microwave. The fact that they are china meant that I would not be able to clean them in the dishwasher. 

  Yet I really want to keep them. My mother grew up on a farm. Her parents were the first generation to be born in the United States. They worked very hard. They always had enough food and clothes, but there weren't a lot of "nice" things. Things that many people take for granted.  My mother left the farm after she graduated from high school. She wanted a better life than her parents had. She found work as a secretary. She bought that china with the money she earned so that she would have a set of china when she got married.  A set of nice dishes that she could use for holidays and special occasions. 

   By this time I'm guessing you are wondering what this has to do with the Erma Bombeck quote I started with. What I think that quote means is that when we have nice things we should use them instead of storing them for use at some special occasion that may or may not come.

   I am going to have to store some of those dishes. There is at least 12 place settings which is way more than I will ever need. I plan on having some of the set someplace where I can get at them easily. I don't want to save these dishes for the holidays. I want to make a dinner on Sunday and use those plates. Maybe when we have guests for dinner I could use them then. If nothing else, I can use them during the week when I want to be fancy. I can make some tea and drink it out of the coffee cups. I could use the sugar bowl. I'll eat a peanut better and jelly sandwich off the lunch plate.

   One of the things that, like Erma Bombeck, I am starting to learn is that we should use the nice things that we have. I think Evie was trying to teach me that too. Wear the jewelry. Put on some perfume. Eat off of a fancy dish. Drink water from a stemmed glass. 

   Don't let the candle melt in storage. Get it out, light it and enjoy the scent and the light. As Erma put it, "given another shot at life, I would seize every minute of it ... look at it and really see it ... try it on ... live it ... exhaust it ... and never give that minute back until there was nothing left of it."