Post #2606535

2026-04-21 22:47 UTC

@kate@aus.social Thanks, Kate. Good to hear from you. If you didn’t happen to see it, please check the post with the birthplace mug I made. It continues the conversation about what our birthplaces mean to us. I sometimes think about what you said—that chalky soil reminds you of home.

Replies (1)

@kate@aus.social 2026-04-21 22:58

@potterybyosa@mastodon.social I found the post! This took me back to Teshome Gabriel’s story of the clay cup his mother gave him when he returned to her home for a visit from the US. I think I may have shared this with you before, but here’s the specific bit. “Before my departure for Los Angeles, my mother gave me two gifts that serve to suggest a different and perhaps alternative idea of gift. One of the gifts that my mother gave me is a little clay cup that I used to drink milk from when I was a baby. The little cup is a relic of my childhood. It is dependent not only on milk, but nourishment, sustenance, nostalgia and memory. Symbolically, the clay cup is in some sense the womb and the umbilical cord that ties me to my mother. The cup is made from the same earth in which my placenta might have been buried. There is this link to the earth, and that link is through my mother. The gift that my mother gave me does not presuppose anything in return. It is an incredible gift, where one does not expect reciprocity. It is an infinite gift.” https://www.teshomegabriel.net/the-intolerable-gift/

Open ##2606536