I had the opportunity to be the guest of a friend at a name black tie event in Chicago held at a large, upscale hotel. It had been quite a while since I last attended a dress-up affair. I thoroughly enjoyed taking it all in as we struggled to hear fellow guests (and ourselves) above an overly zealous orchestra.
A lovely and unexpected surprise was seeing turquoise-colored boxes tied with white satin ribbon, unmistakably from Tiffany, at each place setting. In an era of contraction, that simple, elegant box was something I thought had gone the way of zenith real estate values and automaker pensions.
While I appreciate beauty in the multitude of forms it may take, I don't indulge in conspicuous consumption and am beyond accumulating 'stuff' as a futile attempt to compensate for lack of self worth. I'm not disregarding inequitable world resource distribution. I'm just saying that after being incessantly inundated with batten-down-the-hatches news for what seems like forever and withstanding my own personal and professional armageddi, to see that lovely box, with its inbred reference to affluent material civility, was just really, really enjoyable.
The box contained two 'stemless wine glasses,' a style and labeling which I had not seen before. Could this be Tiffany acquiescence to resource conservation? I think not, but it does bring to mind the viewpoint about one's glass being half empty or half full, if not a bit truncated.
©2010 catherine lenard
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