January 9, 2023
By Arthur H. Gunther III
There is this thing about a woman in the early morning holding her hands around a warm, even mildly hot cup of java or tea. In conversation or not, there is an anchor, and whatever her thoughts, the tether’s for a reason.
I have never noticed this with men. We seem to grab the cup’s handle once in a while, but there is no tie-down. Yet we both look out the window in those inevitable lulls of conversation between two people who are “regulars” with one another – that is a couple past the giddy talk of early romance where no one looks out the window but instead feed off each other’s talk as if there is so much to be said. No taking a moment to breathe.
In other times, the woman at her anchor, the fellow teasing the cup’s handle, the look out the window is either a bit of boredom in a workable but also tolerable relationship, or it is the silence that speaks as much as words when a couple is in rhythm with each other.
Either way, the charm of the woman is found in looking at her hands as she takes comfort from the warm cup. She is holding onto more than coffee or tea.
The writer is a retired newspaperman reachable at ahgunther@yahoo.com
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