800 Words Rationalizing The Purchase of a Mint Green Lamp

Note the color coordination

In case you were wondering, in 1888 Thomas Edison sued George Westinghouse for $1 billion dollars over the patent of the electric light-bulb, the biggest patent litigation case that anyone had ever seen. We haven’t gotten to patents yet, because this is 1L year where you don’t learn useful things but instead learn a bunch of weird obscure facts about who you can and cannot leave your property to.  (Sidenote: I do not know how patents work, but I am apparently an expert in applying the rule against perpetuities). I learned this from a wonderfully fun novel called the Last Days of Night following the exploits of a young attorney named Paul Cravath (who was actually a real dude and the founder of a very important law firm). It’s got blackmail, arson, attempted murder, and Nikola Tesla. Would highly recommend.

Believe it or not, this is actually not the first post I have written about lighting. See Let There be Light(bu)lbs. In a Singing Pirate Lamp. Loyal readers may recall that I currently reside in a dark cave, and that when I’m procrastinating I buy things I don’t need. I like to think of myself as a problem-solver, so I realized that we live in the 21st century, and, thanks to the efforts of Mr.s Edison and Westinghouse, also have lightbulbs. I could purchase said lightbulbs, install them in a lamp, and bingo, turn my room into a less-dark cave. Luckily,  the fine folks at Target informed me that they were having a sale on lighting, so I perused their lighting section. And I found this lovely mint green number. But it was mint! It matched my drawer knobs, night-stand and laundry hamper. If I have to live in a dark cave, it can at least be a color-coordinated dark cave.

So I bought the lamp. Even though it was one of the lamps that was not on sale (damn you, Target, for your successful marketing scheme) Also, I’m pretty sure we currently have a disassembled lamp in our closet that may or may not work. And if I really wanted a cost-effective lamp, there is a Goodwill 5 minutes down the street, or I could have bought a new, on-sale lamp for $8. BUT THOSE WERE NOT MINT GREEN.

Friends, this is some of the best $50 I have ever spent. The lamp came today. It was easy to assemble, and yes, the promised mint-green.My only complaint was that it was packaged in way too much styrofoam that left white chunks on my floor and didn’t come with light bulbs. But those flaws can be forgiven because IT LOOKS SO GOOD. Some people (with poor taste) may say, man that’s a lot of mint green, but they just don’t appreciate how much nicer things look when they match. There are few aesthetic pleasures to be had in law school, so if my lamp looks nice, I’ll take it.

AND BEST OF ALL, IT IS A WORKING LAMP. IT PROVIDES LIGHT. I CAN SEE WHAT I’M READING NOW. You may wonder what’s with all this excitement, because, as noted above, lamps can be cheaply and readily acquired. It should not have taken 4 months to discover the low-tech solution that is decorative lighting.

But it’s easy to get stuck in a funk, and settle for “good enough.” I had a lamp, and I could sorta see. I had resigned myself to living in a perpetual twilight-state. I didn’t realize how dim my room actually was until I got another lamp. I am never returning to those dark, pre-lamp days.

And because I’m striving for perpetual improvement, it made no sense to settle for an inferior lamp colored something lame and neutral, like black, or silver. There are some things I long for but will not obtain in the near future (hardwood floors, a dishwasher, a washer dryer in unit, non-sketchy parking, reasonably-priced rent). But I really wanted a nice lamp, so I bought it.

This is actually not a metaphor. You could definitely spin this into “a change in perspective over the course of the dark days of midwinter” but honestly, I’m just really, really happy that my room is a lot brighter. I do have some hidden domestic tendencies, despite my lackadaisical attitude towards cleaning. I have some favorite appliances: my crockpot, my cast-iron skillet (now with oven-safe lid!) (ok, actually not an appliance but you get where I’m going). And now my lamp can join them.

Also, in the grand scheme of things, $50 is not that much. I’ve spent that much in a night (occupational hazard of law school). And my lamp will probably prove much more useful and provide much more joy than all the other dumb things I spend money on. It’s pretty sweet being able to see.