A COFFEE MUG

Coffee mug, something that I always keep by my side.

Not just a MUG, Not just a THING, Not just a coherent MATERIAL. Yes, I get attached to materialistic things, but that is what keeps myself intact and humane.

The humanity inside you isn't lost anywhere, you just have to be kind and observe the heartfulness around you because everyone deserves kindness even if the world has been harsh to them, the world should believe at what you're doing.

There is a certain intimacy in the objects one possesses. To an outsider, it may simply be a “coffee mug”, a cylindrical ceramic vessel with a warm liquid sliding down one’s throat. But to me, it is never an object, a vessel made out of a particular material in a certain shape, it is never just a coherent whole. Yes, I am very much attached to my material items, but this is the only way I can be attached, grounded, human.

Our society is, in many ways, built on detachment – an ability to ignore the value of certain physical items and interactions between people, to quantify them to very low values. But being attached to objects is what makes us human, because we can be attached to a particular ceramic mug that accompanied us through sleepless nights of studying for an exam, through long coding sessions when the final product still contains a multitude of errors, and through our darkest hours when the world seemed too unfair and loud. This is how our interior is reflected on the surface – the interior of our souls, perhaps. How our spirituality, or lack thereof, is presented in the rawest form – a form of decoration, color, and a warm, steady weight in one’s hands.

Perhaps that is the connection between a kind heart and a kind world. The ability to be attached to the trinkets and objects of this world is directly linked to how we can observe the general lack of kindness in it. If one is able to notice the smallest details of the things they possess, the way their morning coffee mug warms their hands every single day, they are more likely to be nurturing and kind to the people of their world. That is not to say that humanity is a virtue, but rather that human kindness is a practice performed by people of this world, which should, at the very least, be performed more often. The world is an unfair and often brutal place, but most people would have been able to withstand its harshness if a stranger had smiled at them once in their lifetime.