I reread one of my favorite essays the other day by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich entitled “Lusterware” which is found in the book

Thoughtful Faith: Essays on Belief by Mormons

. This wonderful essay speaks about Lusterware, which in the pioneer times in the US, copper lusterware became popular precisely because of its lustrousness. Apparently, as gaslights became available to the rich, the fad was to place groupings of lusterware on mirror platforms to be used as centerpieces for dinner parties. Gaslights accentuated their lustrousness. This lusterware was inexpensive relative to silver, but was popular due to the shiny nature and accessibility of it to the masses (due to low price).

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich then makes the analogy of lusterware and silverware to the Gospel. She compares lusterware to each of our favorite “hot button” issues in the Gospel (e.g., Blacks & the Priesthood, Polygamy, Role of Minorities in the Church would be mine), while silverware was compared to the true treasures in the Gospel (e.g., testimony, opportunities to serve, Templework, etc.). She mentioned how, like Pioneers, she sometimes puts her lusterware up on the shelf and shines it all of the time, while putting the silver into a drawer somewhere to be used or shined only intermittently. She ends with a reminder to herself to not forget the silverware in her laser focus on the lusterware. She wants to remember to use the silverware and shine it more and focus less on the lusterware – which is then brought back to the Gospel / Issues comparison. I have not done her wonderful analogy justice, but it certainly opened my eyes and made me realize the truth in her words. I have tried to remember to shine and display the silver more often and to put the lusterware into context, for the silver (true treasures of the Gospel) are more valuable to me than the lusterware, and the silver makes the lusterware possible…