Skip to main content

Six Sentence Story: Plate

It's been a while since I've participated in the Six Sentence Story hop hosted by Ivy. I guess you could say I've dropped the ball plate. 🙂

 "How do they make it look so easy?"

 The quickly spinning plates balanced so perfectly on the poles the Chinese women acrobats held in their hands. As she watched them, mesmerized by the hypnotic movement of the plates, she thought she saw words on each ceramic disc: family, job, chores, exercise, mental health, home projects, budget, . . . . Her mind spun as frantically as the plates. 

 Returning home from the performance, determined to learn their secret, her hasty internet search informed her that the plates were not regular dinnerware, but special pieces with places for the poles to attach. Comparative guilt relieved, she settled back into the rhythm of her life: some plates spun nicely for a time, others fell and needed to be picked up again.  






Pin It

Comments

  1. Paul BradsSeptember 21, 2017 at 10:30 AM

    A great description of life!! Spinning plates. Very good . Glad you came back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KristiSeptember 24, 2017 at 9:25 PM

      Thanks. I'm trying to get the plates all spinning again. :-)

      Delete
  2. messymimiSeptember 21, 2017 at 4:42 PM

    Smart to look it up, as not to mistake someone else's trick for reality.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Keith's RamblingsSeptember 22, 2017 at 3:14 AM

    Such is life! A brilliant use of the cue.

    Click to visit Keith's Ramblings

    ReplyDelete
  4. Deborah LeeSeptember 22, 2017 at 6:07 AM

    If only we had little slots to hold all the plates we juggle!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Clark FarleySeptember 22, 2017 at 6:31 AM

    Ed Sullivan!
    Actually, this is also the namesake of a clarklike emotional state 'to be Ed Sullivaned'
    Why sure, I can provide some backstory... lol
    So, for me, I was exposed to plate spinners as the occasional act on the Ed Sullivan show (your mother can tell you about it...lol)
    Anyway, as a clark, I would sit and watch and would feel direct, and genuine embarrassment when plates would drop and break in front of the audience. (I once called it 'projectile empathy'...lol)
    what an excellent Six

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KristiSeptember 24, 2017 at 9:28 PM

      I was really surprised to read that some plate spinning is rigged--I thought plate spinning was all like what you described.

      "Projectile empathy" is a good thing, I think.

      Delete
  6. AnonymousSeptember 25, 2017 at 7:35 AM

    OK, it's me, Lisa. No idea why Google isn't recognizing me. :(
    I always wondered about those plate-spinners. Very cool skill. Can't say I'm surprised that much is rigged. Disappointing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KristiSeptember 25, 2017 at 8:27 AM

      Hi Lisa! I don't know that all plate-spinning is rigged; I think there are actually legitimate spinners. I just came across info about the truck plates, and used those for the purpose of this story.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Conversations are so much nicer when more than one person does the talking. :-) Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts; I'd love to hear from you!

Popular posts from this blog

Monday Mentions: Equate Crutches

Have you ever needed crutches? I hadn't, until a week ago.  I'm pretty sure I strained a muscle while running a half-marathon.  (That sounds kind of cool, doesn't it? I'm not actually that cool; the last time I strained a muscle it was from carrying too many shopping bags at once.) In any case, I found myself in need of some crutches. I sent my husband to the store to get some. Photo: A pair of crutches leans against a wall  Not that crutches are all that complex, but because I hadn't used any before, I wondered if I could figure out how to adjust them to fit me properly. I shouldn't have worried. John came home from Walmart with their generic store brand of crutches, complete with instructions. First, I needed to take out a long bolt that went through the hand grip. Then I needed to find my height range, push down two metal pieces, and slide the crutches until the little metal pieces came up in the hole near my height range. (Having two people for this...
4 comments
Read more

Ten Things of Thankful: Live from Oregon, part 2

stock photo of old computer monitor When I was 10 or 11, I remember sitting next to my dad in our living room and reading computer code to him as he entered it into an Apple computer. We would finish the exercise and he would hit enter (or was it "run"?) and wait expectantly for the green type to appear on the screen. If we were lucky, the whole conversation would occur. Most often, there would be an error either in my dictation of the code, or in the typing of the code. We would then go painstakingly back through the lines, character by character, to find and correct the error. After what seemed like hours (and might have been), we would succeed and the computer would finally run the entire program. It was magical! My dad designed and built an earth-sheltered, passive solar home decades before solar panels were commonplace. He also was on a 9-month waiting list for a Prius, when hybrids were not seen on every street.  While my dad is definitely on the cutting edge of technol...
5 comments
Read more

Ten Things of Thankful: Oregon Edition, Part 3

  A western bluebird, sitting at the base of a house window, looks inside Thanks (1) to those who have sent well-wishes for my mom's recovery. Her wrist is healing up nicely. I met a friend from high school for lunch this past week. It was so nice to have a chance to visit with her for a couple of hours. She is one of those friends who it doesn't matter how much time has passed, we can pick right back up into meaningful conversations. Lunch ended all too soon, but I'm so thankful (2) for her, and I'm thankful (3) that she reminded me of the importance of reaching out to others.  Being in my parents' home this week, visiting with a long-time (I'm not saying old!) friend, and with Mother's Day tomorrow, my mind naturally reflects upon the women in my life. I'm thankful (4) for an incredible mom--a gentle woman who taught and loved and guided us (and still does.) I'm thankful (5) for grandmas who were different in their personalities but united in their...
3 comments
Read more