The Legacy of a Spoon

Musings from the Pipeline, by Janet Fix

I hold in my hand a spoon. It’s 50 years old, this spoon, “older than you are,” says my mom, as if that in itself is something to behold.  But it is neat, this spoon.  It’s from a silver set she was given the December before I was born, during a “girls night out” event in honor of my mother and li’l ol’ me-to-be.  Mom has only two items left from the whole set: two spoons.  She’s keeping one, and she gave this one to me.  I guess that makes this spoon part of the family legacy.

I will feed my new granddaughter with this spoon, to further inspire the tale.  I wonder what weight it will carry in terms of importance another 50 years from now? Will we even be eating with spoons ? Will this spoon no longer be functional, but an apparatus in a shadow box of antiques? Oh!, will the definition of an antique have changed such that it would not even be one?

I think about all this in terms of legacy.  Authors are encouraged to publish so they can “leave a legacy.” But I don’t agree so much with that.  I think most of us write to leave an impact today.  And that’s how it should be. What happens upon death is a bonus, or not.  I write for “now,” for you and me.  Where my words go upon my death concerns me far less than the fate of this spoon.