My Prized Possession

Materialism – the cornerstone of the American society! What we have, what we’d like to have, and how much of it we do have (and is it shinier than your neighbor’s?)! The fact is we all own material things, no matter what our culture. It doesn’t even matter how much money we have; most people hang on to items they consider important. Perhaps it was something someone saved for years to be able to afford, or it could be objects passed down to you by a loved one. My prized possession falls under this last category. I typically don’t make emotional connections to material things, but my treasured item was given to me by my mother, and it was something that was so important to her I feel I owe it the same regard. It’s a set of tea cups from Japan, gifted to her as a wedding present. They helped my mother during a crucial time in her life, later they facilitated a special bond between my mother and me, but their most important role is the one they played when my father passed away. Ultimately, they are much more than just a possession.

At the beginning of their life together, my parents didn’t have much. My mom was a teacher, while my father was working full time and going to school to finish his degree. Very shortly after they were married my dad’s job required a move to another state, and my mom had to leave everything she knew behind. She was also pregnant with my brother. Going from a place where one is surrounded by family to another where you know no one can be daunting. Their new apartment was also much smaller, so they downsized. A lot of their wedding gifts stayed behind, but my mom insisted on taking the cups. They were small enough, and, what I’m certain she didn’t tell my dad, they also gave her a sense of the familiar. The tea set had not just simply been purchased for them, but had been owned by a loving aunt who passed it down to them. This was her connection to family.

Ironically, no one in my family since my grandmother has had a habit of drinking tea. Even if we did, I doubt those cups would have made their way out of the hermetically sealed cabinet where they resided to be tainted by a hot substance…I’m sure the little Geisha at the bottom of the cup would feel quite affronted by such a crass act. The point is, they were too beautiful to be used for anything other than longing admiration. Long after my parents moved back to Rio, and when I was little, I would ask my mom if I could see the cups. She would make a big pageant of it, holding each one with such a light touch you’d think they were ethereal. I was fascinated by them and thought they were the loveliest cups in the entire world. It was clear my mom was proud of them and glad to display them to such an adoring audience. It was “our thing.”

Many years after those sessions of adoration sessions, my father passed away from a completely unexpected disease. I had long been living abroad in the United States and it was very hard for me to fathom life without my father. Furthermore, it was hard to imagine my mom alone in Brazil without my father. I went back home to help, and one day my mom called me to her room and handed me the tea cups. She said they had been there for the good and the bad, and they always served as a life-line when she needed one, so they were my life-line now. The tea cups were there when my parents were struggling to build a life together away from what they knew. They were there in my childhood, and now they were here in my hands – those cups I had been forbidden to touch as I was certain to break them – helping me mend my connection to my family. It was an incredibly touching moment and one I’ll never forget.

So the tea cups are my most prized possession because they are so much more than just tea cups – they mean family to me; they represent togetherness. An item that my mom held on to for a great portion of her life and that got her through some tough times, she saw fit to bestow upon me when she felt I needed a connection to family. That tea set was my mother’s prized possession when she was in a strange place. It was a link that bonded us together in my childhood, and at the end of my father’s life, it was one of the most important things she could have given me other than her love. Those cups represent her strength, and as silly as it may sound, they give me that same strength. Maybe they would fetch a pretty penny on Antiques Road Show…but I don’t care, because to me, they’re priceless!

The proud Geisha and the tea set: