I think that handles on things, say on a pot for instance, have evolved along with their handlers. The handle wants to touch someone. Before dismissing this notion out of hand (!), consider how plants communicate with bees, reaching out with flowers to enlist pollinators. This dance of life includes perfume, also employed by humans for the same purpose. Such a delightful observation inspires music, literature and cooking. It is fun, spreading beauty everywhere, wonderful roses, even down to the needs of the dreaded spotted spurge, deplored by gardeners.

But who would ever imagine spurge coming up the porch to ring the doorbell? This would be as likely as a pot handle that wanted to shake your hand.

SO, having framed the hypothesis in this mild mannered way, it might persist for a second or two. Long enough for a guffaw, which gives it a dimension possibly granted as an indulgence or perhaps a royal dispensation, mainly to humor me. You can feel good about this. At the far end of the bell curve, I am not calling the kettle black. And this is a good thing, is it not?

What is the color of laughter? Perfume? Is it fun? Can we put a handle on it? You get my drift.



Now a pot of course, black or not, is inanimate. It does not ring doorbells. Patience. There is a certain logic to this. Visitors reach out to the inanimate door handle. Contact is made. It wanted to touch someone. It evolved for this. Is the honey in a flower animate?

Everything that is communicates in some way with everything else. Being human we want explanations. There must be a purpose for spotted spurge, no matter how deplorable it seems. Whether or not it wants to ring the doorbell, it does communicate. So I say it wants to.

Of course this is laughable. And we relax.