Corning Ware Hand-me-downs

Anyone who has closed down the household of elderly parents can relate to the walls of boxes that encroach on your own home during the process.  Things that have sentimental value or that could be useful add up until both the experience and amount of stuff become overwhelming.  A few years ago we were closing down the homes of my parents and my in-laws simultaneously.  We were inundated with stuff.  As boxes came into the house they were opened, and each of us chose the things that we wanted to keep. Things were reshuffled into boxes marked for each of the kids.  We repackaged as we went along which didn’t always lead to the most efficient organization of items for storage until the kids were ready for them.  

As things were finally reorganized and distributed I discovered an abundance of Corning Ware containers.  Suddenly, I had a cost-free solution to the large number of our plastic food containers that were wearing out.  I had been following the stories online about the potential hazards of using plastic for food and water storage.  Depending on which article you read plastic is either harmless or lethal.  Either way, it didn’t make sense to purchase new plastic when I already had so many glass containers in an array of sizes.

Corning Ware from three households now in one.

It has been a while now since I cleared the plastic container cupboard to make room to store Corning Ware.  I don't know if my body is any healthier for steering clear of the potential hazards of plastic, but I am sure it does my heart good each time I transfer something nourishing I have prepared for my family into a vintage Corning Ware container that was once used to feed my family or my husband's.

Crazing

I was dusting the shelves in my china cupboard the other day when I stopped to look at Grandma's dishes.  Tracing the fine lines of crazing as I remembered her, I began to think how the crazing seemed to add to their beauty  for me.  Caught up in the notion, I looked up the meaning. 

Crazing: To develop a network of fine lines on the surface. It happens most often with age and with change--such as temperature, humidity, and location--or from too vigorous movement.  Crazing is most likely to happen in areas where tension and yielding have been localized. (from Ebay)

At this point I was completely off task and lost in my imagination.  How many faces do I know that are covered in fine lines brought on with age and change?  How many of us wear the effects of movements in life that came too vigorously or in less than optimal environments?  Movements that came in response to loss or changing circumstance. Tension and yielding happen to us all.  The more we experience them, the more likely we will show it.  

Society says these lines, this physical crazing, should be minimized.  So much money is made by companies who have convinced women that any sign of tension and yielding is unattractive.  Look again at the definition of crazing.  These fine lines are only on the surface; by their very definition they are a visible statement that  no matter what life gave me, I did not break.  The lines come at the cost of  fully immersing yourself in life experiences.     The tension and yielding are stress and struggle, yes; but they are also smiling and deep belly laughing.  These lines don't just happen, they are earned.

Grandma was ninety-nine when she died.  If I am given the gift of a long life like hers, I will be delighted if my face shows as much crazing as the dishes in my cupboard.  I will proudly claim each line as evidence of years of fully engaged living.  The joys and sorrows that made me the woman I am will all be visible on my face.  I may be crazed, but I will be beautiful.

Inspired by the writing prompt--No one ever asked me.  Because once again I have found a topic where my opinion runs contrary to that of the general public's.

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