Look closely - what can you see there?
Yes, a bunch of flowers I am still enjoying, but no, take a closer look - peek into that cup. It's full of travel spoons - those strange little enameled implements that people used to pay a fortune for to prove they had been wherever they had been. Then they would take them home and who knows how they were used?
What I do know a lot about is their eventual fate. They end up in the junk shop for sale at $1 or $2 a piece depending on whether they are still in their plastic foam - lined cases.
Then I buy them. Not because I'm after my very own spoon collection but because these are going to be the leaving gifts for my staff.
I considered my budget - about $ 2 per person. ( NO I'm not being a cheapskate - we have a large team.- numerically that is ) And I came up with this marvelous plan of giving each person their very own spoon from me.
First because they represent some things I like - they come from my favourite junk shop and the price is perfect.
Second each spoon is symbolic. It represents a journey that someone made to somewhere. Some of those places are familiar, some are not. Some of the spoons speak of times and significant events.
That's what teaching is like. It takes you both physically and figuratively to places you never thought you'd go before. Sometimes you end up in a place you never could even have imagined. There are always significant times and events as you teach that change you either for better or worse- inspire you or embitter you depending on how it pans out.
I plan to pass these wise thoughts along with some suitably silly ones on to my colleagues as I leave. I am sure if nothing else I will be remembered as being cheap and wierd. What better legacy can I leave ?
SO Here's to a week of being cheap and weird.
Marg
That's such a great idea, I would love a silly souveneir teaspoon as a parting gift. I like the mixture of practicality and symbolism. A teaspoon and a good morning tea shout will leave everyone with very nice memories of you.
ReplyDeleteWell said Miss Smith, especially the 'good morning tea shout' as opposed to the other sort. The teaspoon is the perfect gift seeing as the staff most likely don't need anything in particular and here is a small momento that can be assimilated amongst their most used posssessions.
ReplyDeleteIs it just a co-incidence that Weirs second hand shop is only one letter off weird?
Hey, I'm all for cheap and weird and you'd be hard pressed to be cheaper and weirder than me - I think it might be a gene thing.
ReplyDeleteI'd be very happy to recieve a cleaned up old spoon! Cheap and weird... couldn't have put it better myself harhar
ReplyDelete