I hate perfect stuff. Even when I was enagaged and picking out my china pattern, I was struck with the nervous feeling of "matching anxiety." What if I pick a pattern I love, and I get a dozen place settings and one breaks? Then I'll have 11. That won't be right. That will never feel right again. Then of course, I could buy another one. But what if the pattern is discontinued? I guess then I could use one of those replacement services and find it, but what if I can't? Then I'll always have just 11. It will always be 11 the imperfect set. Not 12 the original perfect set. And don't even talk to me about finding crystal and silver to match. I feel my heart racing already from the pressure of that! Lucky for me Villeroy & Boch had just come out with their Switch 3 collection. How brilliant I thought! Mix and match...now we're talking. I immediately felt a sense of relief and that was only the beginning.
That pursuit of the "relief" feeling has followed me ever since and it's grown. Now I buy things that don't match on purpose. China cups with mismatched saucers. Different pretty champagne glasses all from different eras. No two alike. Odd numbers of spoons each with different monograms or designs. Each one a forgotten piece no doubt from someone's collection that along the way failed to meet the gold standard of a "perfect" set, so of course it had to be abandoned. A sore and constant reminder to the owner of how the set was falling short of it's complete destiny. Unwanted, waiting for me or someone like me, or you, to come upon it, scoop it up and cherish it for it's own unique, one of a kind, beauty. To mix it together with other imperfects to form a unique and unmatching inspired story.
So here's to our imperfect world. Our imperfect faces and imperfect homes. Our imperfect dreams and imperfect bodies. Here's to the warmth of forotten pieces and forgotten hearts found again and given a second chance to grace our homes and lives. Here's to the perfectly imperfect in all of us.
