A Title - A Meaning - A Purpose

I was considering my blog's name this evening. The idiom is not extremely popular in the States, and I'm guessing it is English in origin. So to say something or someone is "as good as a chocolate teapot" or "as useful as a chocolate teapot" is to say it is basically - useless. 


But I like to think of it in a more dynamic way. If you were to put a teabag and hot water into a teapot made out of chocolate (mm I hope it'd be Swiss chocolate) a disaster would ensue. A chocolate teapot is impractical. Results would be catastrophic to a clean white linen in a tearoom. It's dysfunctional. Unfit.


If you would like tea, for godsakes, use something glass or ceramic.


I love this idiom for a few perhaps "useless" reasons. It may be unfit and ridiculous as a container for steeping and serving tea in. Some teapots of a more inedible nature are used as a decorative touch to a kitchen or dining room. Perhaps you could put your chocolate teapot in the china cabinet, or for that English friend who has everything.. gift it up with a slight wink. At the very least, a chocolate teapot could be enjoyed, savored, and eaten - with your tea on the side.


Thus, a chocolate teapot needn't be entirely without use. It is under appreciated as a clever way to get your weekly chocolate fix. But the real glory of this idiom, as my blog title, as it is a reference to the poor kitchen accessory made of chocolate, is that it is said to declare the item or person is unwanted, unneeded, and unimportant. It is undervalued, perhaps because people lack the creativity to dig deeper or the intelligence to see it may have some purpose, though small. A chocolate teapot can give comfort, joy, and a clever sort of pleasure. Those may not be the typical uses for a teapot, but with some imagination, and time, someone will discover the chocolate teapot may have some surprising things up it's spout.


I think I am somewhat like a Chocolate Teapot. I haven't always been, and I think I will morph again someday. But for now, I'm there, sitting on a shelf, a bit too round, a bit too useless.