pshaw_raven | A Small, Pure Pleasure

I just finished reading Little, Big by John Crowley. I highly recommend this, or basically any of Crowley's works. I have also read KA: Dar Oakley in the Ruins of Ymr and it was engrossing, and not just because the titular hero was a Crow. Anyway, I came across this passage and marked it to copy out because it was so striking for me, and I'm sharing it with you.

The ducks were made of castile soap, Cloud said who had bought them for him, and that's why they float. Castile soap, she said, is very pure, and doesn't sting your eyes. The ducks were neatly carved, of a pale lemon yellow which did seem very pure to him, and of a smoothness that inspired a nameless emotion in him, something between reverence and deep sensual pleasure.

I remember having soaps similar to that as a kid. I think Avon mainly sold them. Of course since they were Avon, they were highly scented, but they had that wonderful, supple smoothness that you never saw in other bars of soap from the grocery store. And now the fashion is for more rough-hewn homemade looking bars.

But the crystal egg I now use as a ring holder (since it's got a lid it's cat resistant) had one of those soaps in it - a big pale pink egg that was deceptively light for something of its size and apparent solidity.