Raising the Cup to My Lips
There are always bits that catch my ear on the ride to work in the morning, especially on KPFA, today something about the space inside the cup which renders it useful. Otherwise, why would we bother? And to think of it, the cup has more than a utilitarian purpose, because sure, where would I be in the morning without my cup of coffee, or on those particularly hot days as the summer closes down to a scorch here in the Bay Area, where would I find myself without an icy glass for a beer?

A cup or glass serves a particular purpose while it still retains its own integrity: a beautiful glaze, a porcelin shimmer, an ingenious handle. The cup has the ability to exist on several planes, and it is precisely that multipurposefulness which endows it with beauty. Archeologists have been digging up all sorts of vessels from civilizations for years. Wherever we go, we fill and drain our cups.

...a space, an emptiness, the ability to contain something which renders it useful...

With my excursions into online dating, I think the experience that I find so refreshing while at the same time, terrifically scary, is an openness, a certain vulnerability, admitting to the world of dating subscribers that "I'm here, available, and I'm actively looking." Leaving behind a certain subterfuge and a pretense that we are not attracted to certain individuals as we move through the world, and what's more, to even upload photographs with tender notes such as, "I've lost weight since this picture was taken," or "I'm an attractive woman who wants a loving man."

People having the openness to disclose, to reveal the space inside the cup where our lives flow together.