This was my Grandma's tea pitcher, one of them, anyway. She had two, a matching pair, and Mom now has the other one. Ever since I was a little girl, we made sweet tea in these pitchers every Sunday for dinner. I don't know that they've ever had anything but sweet tea in them. They were made by Frankhoma Pottery in Sapulpa, OK. I remember either taking a tour of the facility or maybe we just drove by it on a school field trip one time. I was so young that I didn't really realize the signifigance or importance.
I love this pitcher for so many reasons. It's a beautiful green and brown with a few golden hints here and there. It's sturdy and fragile all at the same time. I love that it has chips around the bottom because that means that it's used and appreciated and loved and not stuck on a shelf to gather dust and only be admired from afar. This pitcher is a wonderful metaphor of our lives as humans:
We all get filled up and we pour ourselves out.
We all have a job to do.
We are all beautiful.
We are all sturdy and fragile.
We all have a few scars, signs of the life we've lived.
The lesson I see in this pitcher is to not set yourself on a shelf, collecting dust and only experiencing life from behind a protective glass. To truly experience life, get involved in it! Get down and dirty. You may come out with a few chips and dings, but at least you can say you weren't afraid, you weren't frozen, you weren't stuck - you lived! Without the darkness, we wouldn't know light because everything would just be grey. Without the downs, we wouldn't know the ups because everything would just be flat. Without loss we wouldn't know happiness because everything would just be neutral. I have tried so many times to explain the meaning of these words to young people and I just don't think I can adequately do so. Life is full of experiences, good and bad, and much like the old theme song to The Facts of Life - "You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life!" Don't sit back and watch life go by, get out there, get hurt, get happy, get up, get down, stick your right foot in and take your right foot out and do the hokey pokey! Oops, sorry, wrong message. But, you get what I'm saying, right?
P.S. Did you know that the theme song for season 1 of The Facts of Life was different than seasons 2-5? Wow, the things you can learn on the internet!
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