Coffee Mugs

I’ve never been much for mass-produced coffee mugs. While sometimes the sayings are funny, or the picture inviting, in the end they're just perfect, shiny mugs, each one like the others. I'm more drawn to handmade mugs. The earthy colors, irregular shapes and sizes, point to their one-of-a-kind quality.

Recently, I read the derivation of the word “authentic,” meaning “bearing the mark of the hands” and thought of the coffee mugs I like. They bear the marks of the hands that created them, and there’s something about the connection with the maker that moves me. Each mug was a piece of clay thrown onto a wheel. The wheel spun around, as hands and water molded the clay, until it was in the desired shape to glaze and fire.

Obviously, the analogy cries out to us all. Like a mug, we were once just clay (or dust, as the Bible says) but in the hands of the potter we took shape and became a one-of-a-kind work of art. Our shapes and sizes are as varied as our colors and textures, but each of us is unique. We are authentic, because we bear the marks of the hands that created us.

The problem is we try to hide those marks and look like all the other mugs. The shiny coat can be tempting, and we might even go for a whimsical saying or pretty picture to hide our true selves, but in the end we will look like a mass-produced object.

What if we were to re-claim our marks? What if we were to spend time looking at the marks of the potter? What if we honored those marks by living a life specifically geared to those marks?

It sounds so simple, neat, and tidy when described in a blog, but such reflection and excavation will be all but simple. In the end, though, we will uncover our true selves and sit on the shelf like no other mug in the store.