Gratitude Post - April 5, 2023

I'm grateful for Royal Albert Old Country Roses china!

This china, as seen in the image below, is beautiful, and it's my wife's china.

But, as I have come to learn, there are two versions of this china: the original from 1962, or the more recent version.  To the untrained eye (and I include my own eye in that category) the differences are barely noticeable, but to my wife they're blaringly obvious.

Now, you may be thinking, this really is nice china, and it's nice to know that you're grateful for it, but what does this have to do with the theme of the blog?  How is china a reversed expectation?

Well, there are actually two ways that Royal Albert Old Country Roses china is a reversed expectation in my life, and I'm grateful for both instances.

First, shortly after a move to a new townhouse my wife was unpacking her china and placing it on the display shelf we were using for it.  Well, in the move this case had been damaged, and the pegs to support the shelving were no longer in the correct place.  So, as too much weight was placed on those shelves they gave way and down came the china on top of my wife.  Luckily my immediate reaction was the right one, and I expressed concern and focused on the well-being of my wife who was sobbing uncontrollably.  I thought she had been really hurt, but no, she was crying about the broken china.  Apparently the original version of it is quite hard to find since they've transitioned to the newer version, and so it can only be found in antique shops and at estate sales.  She was crying because of the very real expectation that we'd never be able to find enough of the china for her to have the set that she had been building up for so long because of how hard it was to find it.  Well, I'm grateful that we found it and now have more of said china, and a new display case, than we did before the old display shelves threw in the towel.

Second, the general expectation is that good china is only to be used for special occasions.  When a guest comes over, that's when the china gets taken out.  If you have a fancy meal to celebrate a birthday or notable achievement, the china might make a cameo.  But other than those select moments in time, china is more the focus of a display than something that actually has a use.  Well, not so in our household!  My wife's mindset is that china is meant to be used, and so we use it regularly.  If a guest comes over or it's a special occasion, then yes we indeed use the china.  But we also use it if someone in our family has had a bad day and we want to show our general support, or we'll use it just because we're trying out a new recipe, or just because we want to celebrate something mundane, like being alive that day.  It's such a wonderful reversal of the expected use of china, and I absolutely love it!