THIN LIPS

My dad liked his coffee hot! And full!

I would get nervous when I was pouring his cup… he wanted it clear to the brim…and I was not always certain about my pouring accuracy. I was a kid – I lacked the experience I now enjoy. I knew that pouring the coffee was something that I should do. It was one of my household duties. He was exacting about it. He was never scalded, as I feared would happen, but he was frequently…consterned…. Impatient with my tentative approach to this potentially disastrous ( for HIM For his… LAP! ) task.

I was adding boiling water to a teaspoon of instant coffee mix, in a worn, pink MelMac cup mind you. They later designed the ski jumping courses using the same shape as these cups. It you failed to add the boiling water at the correct angle, it zoomed over the edge of the cup. He was particular, not even aware of what a really fine cup of brew can taste like, and totally oblivious to the peril his LAP was facing.

It was during one of these moments of consternation that I first learned to read his upper lip. particularly as it pertained to his level of irritation with all of my inadequacies.
Now this was long before I really new that as we age, two things are certain: Our noses and ears continue to increase in size, and our upper lip loses its bulk. These “givens” had not showed up in my experience yet.

So I became fearful of his thinning lip. A function of time came to be an icon of my shortcomings. Kids do this kind of thing all the time. Some of them are even still writing about it when they are sixty.

A couple of years back, I noticed that whenever I look into a mirror, a much older woman slips in front of me and obstructs my view of myself – forcing me to brush HER teeth and apply lipstick to HER mouth. Her upper lip is really very thin. She must be very irritated. Did I do something? Or not do something? If I were a better girl, she would not be showing me this sign of irritation. When will I ever be able to please her?

Is she occupying anybody else’s mirror like this?


Linda Carol Berry

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