Parallel lives

One of the things I have discovered through blogging is that we are all more alike than we are different, it seems. Sometimes I begin to believe in that old idea of two people living parallel lives. People who will never meet, separated by thousands of miles, yet their lives are identical. Well, no two lives are identical of course, but I am often startled to read something that someone writes that I, myself, could have written, often about some obscure detail of their life.

Last night I was blog-reading, in that way that we all (I think) do—following links from one blog to the next until I find myself reading about someone with whom I have no connection and can't quite remember how I even got there. Suddenly I was reading the blog entry of a woman, about my age, who lives on the opposite side of the continent from me. Posted at the top of the entry was a place setting of Dansk stoneware, in the same pattern, but different color, as the Dansk stoneware I have owned for nearly 40 years. She talked about a recent article in the Washington Post about how today's couples are much less likely to choose formal china and silver when they marry. She said she, herself, had made the choice not to choose china when she married many years ago. She called it her "early rebellion". She chose, instead, the Dansk stoneware pictured, and Dansk stainless flatware.

I remember that some of my relatives and mother's friends were confused and puzzled by my choice of stoneware and stainless instead of china and silver when I was married in 1970. I was not interested in china. Most of what I was familiar with was far too fussy for my tastes, but I was interested in good design and for me the Dansk Generation Mist Brown stoneware was the ultimate. To go with it we selected a stainless pattern called Bedford from Lauffer, a Dutch company. It had won many design awards and I loved, and still love, its elegant shape and perfect balance.

Most of my wedding gifts are long gone. Most of what I loved in 1970 are things I have moved on from, but I still love these dishes and flatware and smile at my beautiful table when I use them. I am a bit more careful than I used to be because both are now discontinued and replacements are incredibly expensive. For many years I saw my dishes in movies, on TV shows, in advertisements. For a long time a plate just like one of mine displayed a mound of Rice a Roni (the San Francisco treat!) on the package front.

Somewhere near Washington D.C. there is a woman who loves her old dishes and flatware, as I love my nearly identical ones. We chose them for the same reasons and both believed, in our youthful confidence that we were the exception to the rule. I guess we were, and I kind of love that.