The Pot on the Window Sill

A philosophical writing by Heather.

There's this pot on the window sill. Sort of a pot for a plant. But it's not at all practical. Its diameter is very wide, but the hole in the top is very small. If you were able to get a plant into it (as a seed or a seedling), you'd never be able to get it out once it grew. It must be more of a decorative thing.

The thing is, there's no bin in that room, and it's so tempting just to put bits of rubbish into it. Not just for the hell of it - we're not delinquents. But you know what it's like when you've got an eyelash, or a fingernail, or a bit of skin from your toe, and you've got nowhere to put it? You have two options, really. Two neat options, anyway. You can either eat it - which only works if you chew your nails, but you can't swallow them (I don't think...), and I believe that it is a very common thing - chewing and actually eating those bits of skin from your toes. But that's just gross. And what about the eyelash? So there really is only one option - put it in the pot.

It's probably okay to do it once or twice, but what happens once you start to make a habit of it? Surely nobody empties that pot. At least not on a regular basis. I assume that it's not a case of dust, vacuum, EMPTY POT!!! So it's only a matter of time, and fingernails, eyelashes and bits of skin from your toes, before the pot is full of bits of bodily matter.

And then seasons pass and it's summer. You've not bothered with enough sunscreen, and consequently your skin is peeling. You get bored, because, after all, the pot is the only interesting thing in that room, and you pick at the peeling skin. Next thing you know, you've got a handful of peeled skin from the back of your shoulder. What do you do with it? Eat it? No, put it in the pot! Nobody'll notice.

How many years will it take before the pot is overflowing and nobody has the courage to deal with it, and you have an eyelash, or a fingernail, or a bit of skin from your toe, or a handful of peeled skin from the back of your shoulder, and NOWHERE TO PUT IT!?!?!

You look for a crack in the wooden floor...