On Good Tools

 "For it is impossible or not easy for someone without equipment to do what is noble." 

-Aristotle

Dwayne bought me a nice, new pot for Christmas. I call it my magic pot. That was only a few weeks ago, but this pot has already become a workhorse in my kitchen. It's indispensable, seemingly, but I vaguely remember twenty plus years of cooking meals without this particular pot, but how did I ever get by without it? 

I've been contemplating our need for stuff lately. Maybe it's because I'm reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics that speaks on the necessities for human happiness and virtue.

As a young wife, I know I coveted a kitchen update, marble counter-tops, and a deep, farm sink, but we were (and still are) on a budget that doesn't include a $30,000+ remodel. Back then, I thought I'd surely be a domestic goddess if I just had such a nicer kitchen, right?

Later, as a new mom, I desired a beautiful nursery with designer baby bedding and decor.  Surely my newborn daughters would feel loved and safe with the nursery of my dreams. And surely I woudn't mind getting up to nurse the baby again if I only had the perfect rocking chair to sit in. But we had to settle for a used crib in the living room of our one bedroom apartment, and I had to find the virtue to get up in the middle of the night without the rocking chair of my dreams. 

These false musings and the like were/ are the deceitfulness of wealth. We often think if we just had more we'd actually be more, but it just isn't so. No matter how much we have, we have to do the work of becoming virtuous by applying God's grace with the help of the Holy Spirit through the mortification of our own flesh and applied elbow grease.  

But, then again, I also remember ten years ago, after a decade or more of cooking, how much more healthily we ate after Dwayne gave me an authentic chef's knife for chopping vegetables. That was another Christmas. I still have that knife, use it several times a day, hand wash it, and sharpen it every year. Kitchen gifts for me end up being a gift to the entire family. But I digress. I remember that a whole world opened up to me once fresh vegetables were a joy to prep, and I was no longer trying to practically saw carrots with knives designed for cutting other things. 

We human beings really do need functional tools, working kitchens and safe, clean, cozy spaces where we can gently nurse our children. We are physical beings in a real world, so need stuff to do the good works we are called to. And usually, the better the tool, the easier the work, the more outstanding the result.  But look around. Most of us in America already have functional kitchens and safe, cozy, clean spaces, if we clean them. Looking back, I wonder why I ever felt any lack, because that fact is, I always had more than enough stuff to do what was right. Whether or not I always had the virtue I needed to do the right is another question with a different answer. 
 

But I can say with certainty that my magic pot arrived at just the right time in my life. I have enough self- knowledge now to know that if I had been given this amazing pot twenty years ago, I would not have had the knowledge or discipline to use it properly. I would have ruined it promptly. I never would have taken the time and effort to clean and store it correctly back then. After all, I had babies crying to nurse and laundry piling up. Nobody has time for hand-washing. 

But at this point in life, I already wash all my fancy clothes separately, hang my delicates to dry, care for my face every morning and evening. I even floss, whether or not I'm feeling it, so, in the truest sense, I know I received my magic pot when I finally deserve it, and that's the truth of it. 

Consider it proverb: The right tools find their way into capable hands. 

So take heart, young wives and new moms out there, because you may never have the budget for a kitchen remodel or the space for a designer nursery. Just keep doing what is right with the tools you happen to have now, and if you can ask for a nicer knife for Christmas, do it. But put all your time and energy into growing into the woman you dream of being with the tools you find your hands, and in the doing right with what you've got, you'll be becoming the woman you dream of being so often that you'll be her before you notice. If your kitchen or your home never looks like the home or kitchen you dream about, it won't even matter, because you'll be the kind of person who makes her home and kitchen what it is. It never works the other way around.