The Provisional Society
of Mugwaiting
Defender. Provisional Mugwaiter enters the battlefield tapped and does not untap during your untap step.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if a kettle has finished boiling this turn, untap Provisional Mugwaiter.
{T}: Draw the beginning of an idea. You may not finish it until after the coffee.
"By 7:05 the hobby had a name, a governing body, and a newsletter. The coffee was at 7:20."
We have not had— Hazel Trewin, Acting Everything, 6:53 a.m.
the coffee yet
and already we are
a movement.
What, precisely, is Mugwaiting?
Mugwaiting is the practice of standing in a room you have not yet formed an opinion about, holding an empty mug, while the water comes to a boil somewhere behind you. That is the whole of it. There is no equipment beyond the mug, and the mug is negotiable.
It was invented at 6:41 this morning by Hazel Trewin of Wicklow Street, who had gone downstairs for one reason and arrived with an entirely different one. She stood in the doorway for four minutes. At minute five she understood that the four minutes had been the best part of the day so far, and that a thing that good deserved a name, a constitution, and a small printed card.
By seven o'clock there were bylaws. By ten past, a card. We move slowly here, but we move first thing.
The Six Provisions
- The mug shall be empty. A full mug is a different hobby entirely and we wish it well.
- You shall stand where the light is doing something. Any light. Any something.
- You shall not decide anything. Decisions made during Mugwaiting are void and, frankly, unkind.
- The kettle may be on. The kettle may be off. The kettle is not the point, though it believes otherwise.
- Should another person enter the room, nod. Do not explain. Explanation is a post-coffee activity.
- The session ends when the session ends. Nobody has yet found the edge of one.
Provision Seven was drafted at 7:18 and withdrawn at 7:19 for being too awake.
Reserve Your Charter Number
Founding membership closes at noon, when the founder expects to become a different and more decisive person. Until then, every applicant is a founder. This is not generosity. It is the hour.