The cup without witnesses
Page 104CHAPTER 3
The cup without witnesses
A simple pleasure becomes a demonstration of taste; the observer finds the drink beneath the performance.
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1 There was an observer who loved a particular cup of tea.
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2 And I shit you not, he enjoyed it even on evenings when nobody visited.
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3 This concerned the Office of Excellent Intentions, which preferred pleasure to require an audience.
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4 A consultant therefore explained that the cup expressed refinement and that inferior cups might damage the impression.
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5 The observer purchased the proper vessel and acquired several opinions about the vessels of others.
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6 Soon he could describe a disappointing cup more fluently than an enjoyable one.
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7 One evening the preferred cup was in the washing-up, and he reached for an ordinary mug.
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8 He tasted the tea.
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9 It was pleasant.
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10 No witness appeared to verify the accomplishment.
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11 He kept his favorite cup, for there was no virtue in pretending not to like it.
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12 But he ceased requiring every drink to defend his standing among connoisseurs.
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13 And when a guest required a different ingredient, he asked what was suitable rather than lecturing upon simplicity.
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14 Thus he learned that care could improve a cup without turning the drinker into a rank.
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Taste is not a rank.
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TRY IT Enjoy one ordinary thing without preparing a report about your taste.
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READING CONVERSATION Letters 13, 17; pp. 27–28, 35–36.