Beauty and utility in the everyday: A conversation with my iPhone (and praise for beautiful mugs, too)

William Morris design on a magnet

There is nothing ‘designer’ about me or my home. I like what I like, things don't need to match, and labels don't impress me. But I do appreciate the quote from British designer William Morris: “Own nothing … not useful or beautiful.” 

Now, we could debate long and hard what ‘useful’ and ‘beautiful’ means to each of us, but when the Morris quote was the prompt in a writing group recently, it got me thinking about my iPhone — a thing of both beauty and usefulness, in my view. 

I was out for a walk one afternoon, my phone tucked into my back left pocket, and before I knew it my mind went down a creative rabbit hole: I would have a conversation with (not on) my iPhone!

This is what I said. 

———————

You are so beautiful. Sleek, elegant, slim. 

You are so useful — ever-present though easily muted, an easy fit in my back pocket, so handy, so wide reaching.

And yet —

I don’t think William Morris would approve of you despite hitting both his marks. Heck, I often don’t approve of you.

So useful.

Too present.

So beautiful.

So sleek, slim and, definitely, too seductive.

iPhone is beauty
with great usefulness.
Eyes, spirit, attention held.

You are my second iPhone, my third Apple product. My first was an iMac — a beyond-beautiful desktop computer. Elegant with a small footprint, efficient and reliable. I loved it. But one day the screen went blank, the system beyond repair by refreshing or upgrading. And I went over to the dark side — the Android side. I replaced it with an Acer desktop, equally useful but not beautiful. Black, not white, not a Mac of any kind. It served its purpose. I didn’t not appreciate it, but I didn’t love it. And when, one day several years later, its screen went blank for the second time, I chose not to have the computer shop repair it but instead and at (my partner) Val’s urging, I returned to Apple and bought my first laptop — a beautiful rosy sort of gold colour that I use to this day. Sleek. Slim. Elegant. Responsive to my touch. Easy to work on any where.

Beauty and utility
Beautiful and useful

I love this principle of William Morris’s — either / or is good enough, but when both together are in one and the same, that thing holds value beyond the obvious. It might be memories, it could be wishes and dreams, maybe it’s hope for something ordinary to be more than 'just' what it is. 

I have a shelf of mugs — far more than I can ever use between dishwasher loads. So many that some are only for tea while others only for coffee. Some can hold either, but every one is both beautiful and useful. And why not. Especially in everyday objects, let a mug’s usefulness not outweigh its beauty. The shape of it, the feel of it in my hand, the colours, the perfection of the handle…all coming together for the simple pleasure of tea or coffee.

I could manage with two or three, but why stop there. A shelfful, maybe two even, of beauty and usefulness paired. There for me to see and to enjoy using in the everyday.

Let me think.

What is here that is useful only? Look into the corners of the basement and you’ll see many things, I’m sure. Let them stay there.

Up here, in the daylight, I look at the tray on my desk. It holds both beauty and usefulness: pens and pencils in a sweet little mug by a local potter, a pencil sharpener, a letter opener, and also a little gold-rimmed fluted dish that holds odds and ends, next to it a smaller wooden dish holding pretty green stones — and the tray holds a plastic dinosaur given recently by a distant friend, and added just the other day, a little brass dragon. Beauty alone. No utility. Beautiful fun.

So, back to you dear iPhone, your beauty and usefulness intertwined.

You are rarely out of reach, so when, occasionally, I leave you behind by accident I feel the loss of what you offer: connection to the larger world. For decades I lived without it, but today I appreciate it.

“Own nothing not beautiful or useful,” said William Morris.

Dear iPhone,

You are two for one —
beautiful and useful.

I cherish you.
I curse you.
I carry you.

And,

I thank you…

With appreciation,

Amanda

My beautiful, and also useful, desk tray: holding both useful and beautiful items

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.