22-Nov-1999
A very short character study, cute
"What is this?" said Heero. He was sitting on the warm rock that was yards away from the shore of the sea when Duo came back from a little shopping expedition. He had been looking at the waves gently fall and flatten as they reached for the shore. It was a sunny day, but a cool wind moderated the heat. This is a perfect day, he thought as he felt Duo scoot next to him. Then he saw the bowl in Duo's hands, beautifully glazed and not quite perfectly round. But it was evident that it had been made with great deal of care.
"It's a bowl," said Duo. "It's made by one of the best potters in this prefecture."
"Seriously?"
"Yup. I really like this bowl."
"But from the top, it's not perfectly round."
"Of course not, it wasn't made by a machine. I wouldn't like it if it was perfectly round. I like it because you can tell it was made by a human being," Duo said. "It reminds me of you."
"How?"
Duo paused then said, "You know that I don't go to church, but I remember a little scripture. It's said that God made man out of clay, just like this bowl is. And like this bowl, people aren't completely perfect but I like them anyway."
Heero just looked at him, listening. He wants to say something, I'll just let him have his say.
Duo got a contemplative look in his eyes. "I used to wonder why God didn't just make perfect people in the first place. Why did he intentionally make people flawed? That's a question that always bothered the hell out of me. The only answer I could come up with that made any sort of sense was that he's a lot like the potter I bought this bowl from. If this was a bowl made by a machine, it would be the same as all the other bowls. Flawless, boring. I heard the potter intentionally builds a minor flaw into the bowl. It's the care and love poured into it that turns it from a mere lump of clay to a piece of art that's worth something."
"Are you saying I'm flawed?"
"Oh, just in a good way. I think you're a piece of art."
"It's a good thing we were made a matching set."
"That's so sweet."
"Baka." Heero said, before they turned to the sea, the waves endlessly caressing the shore, again and again, forever and forever.
The End
(:./mk/clay)
