Mugging Purpose
Bismillah ir Rahman ir Rahim
The mugs observed humans every weekday, like a never-ending TV series. They knew which one was addicted to caffeine. Who was likely to miss their deadline, and yes that one lady who always forgets her tea and rarely finishes it because it went cold.
But the humans did not know anything about the mugs at their office. At 5 p.m. the humans left for their other life, but they left something behind. The emptiness of this office made them come to life.
*Life in mugs*
Pen Mug: You are so lucky. Serving tea twice every single working day, a perfectly useful existence!
Tea Mug: Have you ever felt steaming hot liquids on your insides? Air conditioner is right on top of this desk, that’s cold on the outside and hot on the in. I am torn apart every sin-
Pen Mug: okay so there is a little bit of a temperature problem, think of how useful you are!
Tea Mug: The stirring spoon says nasty hellos to my internal walls. What do you think it is like to be placed on the desk after every sip? core of my figure, my base, it hurts every… single… time… you know-
Pen Mug: But you are the most successful mug I know! You have the importance, the purpose, the meaning. You are-
Tea Mug: Buddy, you carry tools. You are the bringer of order to the chaos of this desk. You are a part of virtually every task that is carried out on this desk!
Pen Mug: But the person needs you to do any of those tasks tha-
Empty Mug Joins the conversation: Please… CAN BOTH OF YOU… just please stop talking? What do you guys think my job is? Huh? What is my purpose? My person gives me neither of the jobs that both of you idiots have!
Both Mugs stare at the Empty Mug silently…
Empty Mug (Continues): I have no purpose but to sit here, untouched, gathering dust, simply because my person’s boss gave me to my person and my person can’t seem to find a way to make use of my existence. All I do is advocate the image of a brand that does not really mean anything. I have nothing to do, no heat, no objects, no objective… Would either of you want this life? Not for an hour, or a day. Would you want a life of no purpose forever?
Tea Mug: I would crack apart.
Pen Mug: I might explode.
Empty Mug: Then quit whining about how you would gladly take others’ lives. You wont’. You simply can’t. Find out what is it about your lives that you want to change, and change it!
Pen Mug: But we are just mugs, we can’t change, we can’t learn anything new, we can’t meet new mugs to learn from them. We can’t do anything to become better than we were yesterday. All we can do is hope our person uses us in a meaningful way.
Empty Mug: or even use us at all. My life will never have a meaning…
*HE HAD BEEN SILENTLY OBSERVING EVERYTHING SO FAR BUT THE WISE HOLDER WITH HOLES NOW SPOKE *
Holder with Holes: Listen, Empty Mug, you have the capacity to become either of these two on a moment’s notice. You carry a branded logo, you have a perfect cylindrical shape that has absolutely no holes in it. Look at me. I have no capacity to grow from where I already am. These holes won’t hold anything in! If I were huge, I’d be a waste basket with this design. Even though I was designed specifically to carry out my job, a short yellow mug can do it just as easily, no offense pen mug.
Pen Mug: None taken… But what has killed satisfaction for each one of us!?
Tea Mug: Unmet expectations.
Empty Mug: What do you mean?
Tea Mug: We always assume that the world always owes us the reality of our dreams. We are just stupid mugs trying to mug others’ purpose, assuming we were all running on each others’ racetracks.
Holder with holes: You are very right but you are also very wrong.
Empty Mug: Now what does that mean?
Holder with Holes: You are right that we are just mugs, but we are not the ones mugging others’ purpose. Humans are. Mugs don’t post first and eat later. Mugs don’t open FB at 3 am to see what everyone is doing. Mugs don’t have it in their locus of control to make choices, Humans do. We mugs and pen holders behave as objects, because we are objects… It is the 21st century humans that fail to see that they are not. They never see that they are more than animals running on a predetermined track that they don’t know the purpose or the maker of. They just try their level best to — -
*Whisper*: …mug each other’s purpose.
Wasi A. Rizvi
Aug 2019
