China teacup handle

Tea for the working woman

This is the handle on the China tea mug that sits with me every day while I work. I was staring at it, thinking about how, in much of my work, I try to get people to focus a bit further ahead than today and tomorrow, to plan their budgets with the future in mind. How hard that is for all of us!

Kunming's workers

And I thought about the men and women in Kunming, China, more than 1,000 years ago, who inspired the painting that in the 20th century made it onto a porcelain teacup handle. How hard it would have been for them to understand that an American sitting in Switzerland (two countries that did not exist) a millennium later would be charmed by miniature versions of themselves, going about their daily tasks, while she sipped tea that had arrived by airplane from their kingdom .

Creativity: wondering if there is another way

The fellow at the top of the handle is sitting under a tree and just thinking. He's wondering if there is a better way forward.

He's working as hard as the rest of them.