The One Night Stand

I might need two. I have only one nightstand to hold my collection of books and handmade coffee mugs. Some may not care for one-night stands and use shelves instead. But I enjoy them very much. Reading a great book in a pile of my favorites while having a coffee is very relaxing and inspiring after a long day making pots or working in the big paper factory. One-night stands also happen in the pots at times; here, a huge push to glaze and get work fired in the updraft gas kilns on a set rotation takes some planning for firing schedules. Coupled with some reading and coffee to stay awake, it makes for a great night when having a one-night stand.

I have a few books I had a one-night stand with, reading them all the way through. One was Homer’s Iliad. I had to stay awake as I was captivated by the Trojins making a push to burn the Greek ships, and the battle of gods and men was raging. I did not want to leave the mighty Ajax alone at such an important time, as the horse-taming Hector, in his aristia , fought with raging fire. I also had a one-night stand with the book War of Art by Stephen Pressfield. Another night was a book by Bart Ehrman, How Jesus Became God, and another was with Karen Armstrong reading The Battle for God.

One-night stands with the pots are not as pleasant as one-night stands with coffee and books. With the pots, the all-nighters are a push to get work done in time. Some have told me it is poor planning on my part, and they might be right. Many one-night stands happen due to poor planning. However this one night stand with the post stand out as it had all the drama. My own all is lost, bad things happen, aristia, inspiration, and push to the finish moment.

The longest night was August 12th, 2020. I had a big pottery show on the way and was firing out a collection. I was doing great firing 8 hours on sleeping for 4. I had to fire and load pots in the rain, and at 3 am, I had a kiln taking too long to reach a temperature as I may have overloaded it. I had to make a decision. I could take time to get to temperature and waste gas and time doing so, or shut it down, load the next kiln, and fire, let the failed firing cool and do a refire.

Either way, I would be pressed for time. At 3 am, I had to think about what pieces were in the packed kiln and their level of importance to have done on time while at the same time loading the next kiln of pots I had just glazed under a tarp in the rain. I almost gave up but took a 10-minute coffee break and realized that whatever happened, if I pushed through, an important lesson would be learned. I would always look back on this terrible one-night stand in the rain, and if I were to have a bad time in the future, maybe none would be worse than the situation I was in. A part of me said shut it all down and go to sleep and give up. Another part of me said I might have regrets as I would wonder how the story would have ended if I pushed on.

I pushed on, loaded, and started the next gas kiln in the pouring rain. It almost felt like nature knew I was going for the finish and was working against me. I had no kiln shed and, at the time, only two kilns to fire work. Gas kilns need to me monitored at all times, and I fire all the kilns manually. I broke the one-night stand down into small parts and knew that the firing would be a little easier once loaded. The downpour and wind kept blowing out the flame on the warm-up up so I had to check every 15 minutes until the kiln was well on it’s way firing. I slept between the hourly checks in the middle of the firing that finished at 11 am. I was able to take a few pieces out of the failed firing and restart it at 1 pm, and unload it the next day at 11: a.m. in time for the show at 6 pm at the gallery.

I do not mind some one-night stands, but each one can teach us something about ourselves if we reflect on our current state and situation. We may even find that we enjoy all our sufferings after a time. This might include all those one-night stands we had in life.

“When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.” – Viktor Frankl

A great book on my one-night stand.

This post was inspired by and written for Kathrine Elaine  at https://substack.com/@kathrineelaine

She dislikes reading about one-night stands, and this was an attempt to change her mind.