I’ve recently jumped into the house plant craze.
Haven’t you heard?
It’s the new hip-happening thing in the pandemic mania – all the kids are doing it. It’s easy, you just buy a plant and when you realize you haven’t killed it after a while, you buy more. Your collection grows and you become your own version of a plant guru.
I’d like to think that I got in on the ground floor before everyone else, so that makes me the coolest of the cool plant kids. After a while, I dared to repot my plants into ‘better’ planters. The idea of repotting gave me some anxiety, as I was sure I would find a way to kill them en route. Nonetheless, I decided to step my game up, actually touch my plants, and give them a pretty-looking home.
I took a trip to Home Depot and began my search. I was disappointed to find they didn’t offer much in the pottery department, so I settled on a few planters that inherently cried this is fine. As I begrudgingly continued my search for one last pot, I saw one that caught my eye.
“Oh I like this one,” I thought to myself. It was in fact the most simple pot I had ever seen; plain terracotta, the perfect size, with no lip. I can’t explain why I liked it so much, but sometimes life is funny that way. I picked it up and noticed a crack on the side of it. I put it back on the shelf and looked for one without any damage and realized, much to my horror, that the broken pot was the last one. I stood in the aisle with my mouth open in shock, “you’ve got to be kidding me,” I whispered to myself, “The only pot I really like is cracked. Ugh.”
I picked up the pot one last time as if to say my farewell and returned it to the shelf once more with a sad sigh. I took a few steps away only to turn around and go back for a negotiation. The damaged pot was there on the shelf for it’s judgment day and the voice in my head gave it’s best indecisive-girl-at-the-store speech.
Well since it’s cracked, maybe they will sell it to me for a discount
No, I can’t buy a damaged pot, it’s not worth it
But I do really like this one
Aw man, why don’t they have any more?! Ugh
It looks pretty simple, maybe I can try another store
Let’s be real I’ll never make it to another store, I got one shot at this mission
Dang. . . I really like this stupid pot
You know what fuck it, I’m getting it. I want it. I don’t care about the crack.
And I bought the pot as is. Not surprisingly, it’s still my favorite one. Every time I walk past it I think “I really like this pot” just as I did that day in the store. Maybe it was only because I hesitated on buying it so much, or perhaps because I made the bold move to pull the trigger in spite of my hesitation. Suddenly I began to like the crack, and more recently when I pass the pot on my dresser or water my plant, I rub my finger across it. Instead of loving the pot in spite of the damage, I started to love the pot because of it. I could easily buy another just like it and perfect, but it wouldn’t be the same. Me and this pot have a story, if only for a while. It reminds me how much flaws make us who we are and how, if we embraced them more, we could even learn to love our imperfections. Eventually, just like the damaged flower pot, our own cracks can be our favorite part about who we are in this world.