Filthy Dirty Fun

Time to send the kids out of the room because we’re going to talk about a really dirty subject, pottery, no, it doesn’t come with stripper poles or blonde starlets forgetting to be lady-like as the struggle out of a limousine, it’s down and dirty and you’d better come prepared to sling the dirt cause ya can’t make pots without getting your hands dirty.

The real truth is there is something very basic to the human animal about pottery. Back at the dawn of time our ancestors made pots for survival. It’s hard to carry water in a woven basket. You can’t really live by the water unless you happen to be in a geographical area where there is water and besides there are things out there in the water that take one look at a tender human and think, “buffet!”

Pots were the answer. Made of non-porous material they offered a way to take water from the source and carry it back to where a campfire could hold back the dark. Just think of the wild luxury of not having to run down to the river first thing in the morning to brush your teeth or wash your face.

It didn’t take long for art to creep in, a plain pot is pretty much like any other pot and after all of the trouble you went to, to make it why would you want some other Neanderthal taking credit for it, but if all pots looked alike how could you support your claim? The first design was like mom sewing your name in your Jockeys for camp, this is mine and you keep your hand off it.

The reward of decorating your pot went far beyond just ownership. Even the tiniest fragment tells the archeologist the details of your life generations after you have gone. So Art not only provides proof of purchase, it passes your legacy through time.

But if you don’t get your hands dirty what will the Indiana Jones of the future do? They’ll become stamp collectors and you wouldn’t want to be responsible for leading a boy down the road to a lifetime of philately, would you? So make your mark on history, keep the youth safe from idle hands and give Art a boost, go throw a pot.