Too valuable to use

While I have long subscribed to the philosophy that if I have it, I should use it, there are some things which become too precious to use. A case in point would be the first Christmas tablecloth which I began having our dinner guests sign. My mother was among the first, then my dad. Friends of ours who've long-since moved, friends of our sons. To use it isn't a worry; to wash it and slowly erode the "permanent" ink is. So it is in my hope chest.

Now, I have another item which I'm about to retire, my Australian Starbucks mug. There's a slight crack around the rim and yesterday I kept hearing popping sounds from it as my coffee cooled. I think this portends an ultimate, sooner rather than later, mug collapse. I have used this mug since it traveled home with us from Sydney in Feb 2005. For five years, it has been my faithful morning companion and no one else has sipped from it. (They wouldn't dare.) Since then, I've acquired other international mugs, some of which I've brought home, others that I've "traded" for with a friend. I have Lima, Chile, San Diego, Vancouver, London, Adelaide (second trip). Dallas, even. Some are too big for morning coffee and are in storage.

But I'm going to have to choose a new favorite. To break my purple and white mug with the koala and Sydney Harbor Bridge on it would cause me no little sadness. It has finally become too valuable to use.