Taper Candle as Evolved Instructor

Worth v. value and the capitalist evolution of the taper candle

“Worth” is a thing’s monetary cost, what the market will pay for it, how much it costs to produce.

“Value” is a broader, more complex concept. It can include “worth”, but not always. Sometimes “worth” and “value” fluctuate to the same degree. Others, worth increases exponentially while “value” remains stagnant. It depends on who the assessor of said object is.

And the taper candle is the best illustration we have in the discussion of worth v. value in our modern era.

A few months ago, I was stopped in the middle of a Goodwill, arms full of finds. It was my husband.

“Please,” he pleaded. “No more candlestick holders.”

(A brief aside - is it candlestick or candlestick holders? Candlestick holders makes more sense to me, because the candlestick is the actual candle, surely, just in stick form? But it also feels clunky, like so many American words. i.e., horseback riding. Like…where else do we ride on a horse? On it’s arse?)

I looked at my husband standing there, washed pale under the florescent Goodwill lights, the laminate tile reflecting in his impassioned grey eyes. And I agreed. No more candlestick holders.

Because we do have a lot of them.

At time of writing (and for the time being, Maurice), I own eight candlesticks. Actually, I own twelve, because I forgot to include the two sets of Shabbat candlesticks generously gifted to me for becoming bat mitzvah. That is a significant number of candlesticks for a 967 square foot apartment.

That said, bar the beautiful Shabbat candlesticks, none of my candlesticks have breached a $5.00 price tag. The same goes for the actual candles(ticks????). All of my taper candles are courtesy of any number of regularly frequented thrift stores across Colorado’s Front Range. (Really. If you need taper candles, thrift them. You can find grab bags of 4-6 taper candles for a solid $2.99 at your local Goodwill. I mean, I don’t know what kind of 1980s chemicals have been petrified into the wax, but I also sometimes wear Amazon polyester clothes, so those in glass houses?).

I buy candles/ticks because there is something romantic about lighting a taper candle. I have one in my kitchen, brass with delicate petals, that makes cooking our regular Sunday night vodka pasta feel like I’m in A Good Year. Lately, I’ve been showering by candle light in the evenings, with the window cracked open (fucking heaven). Half of the candlesticks in my home don’t even have candles in them, like the handmade ceramic one in the left living room built-in, or the modern white one in the office. It’s the possibility of lighting a candle that feels special, because lighting a candle is a luxury.

The candle’s luxury is directly tied to its nostalgic quality. C’mon, we’ve all had the quill-in-flickering-candle-light letter-writing fantasy, haven’t we? A bygone era where darkened hallways were more mysterious and shadows could contain lovers or spies or ne’er-do-wells. When darning socks by candle tallow was an evening well-spent, and knowledge stuck heartier in the mind when consumed by a flame?

These images are romantic and nostalgic because now, we can only opt into them. You and I have absolutely no need whatsoever in the material world for a candle. We have lights and lamps and cell phones and screens. Even in emergency situations, we have access to solar and battery-powered flashlights. The only time to use a candle is when we choose to do so, to evoke a certain mood or ritualize a practice.

Thus: the candle, luxury item.

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Interestingly, the romantic scenes we want to recreate by lighting candles were absolutely not-so during the era of honest candle usage.

I like to think of the candle as akin to the printing press in its transformative nature to society at large, but maybe kind of shitty? Not totally shitty, and absolutely necessary, but prior to mass candle production, candles were actually kind of high-end. They were expensive to make, with beeswax candles in particular serving as an exclusive to the upper echelons of society, according to the National Candle Association (yes.).

But long before candles were produced en masse thanks to Joseph Morgan’s 1834 molded candle machine (is the National Candle Association website becoming my favorite place on the Internet?), candles extended the workday. Toiling in the fields, cooking, sewing burlap sack petticoats used to be reserved for daylight hours. Then - the candle. And suddenly, work and detailed work in particular could be undertaken at anytime of day.

Did the candle…introduce…capitalism?

No. But it’s an interesting thought experiment. To me, anyway.

Before the Industrial Revolution, the worth of the candle and the value of the candle were both through the roof. Yes, candles were costly and time-consuming to make, but think of the many, many wonderful hours of night work you could squeeze out of your indentured staff by candlelight! Then, enter the lightbulb in 1879 (another tidbit from the National Candle Association website!!), and the value of the candle suddenly plummets. With electric light, the candle was no longer needed in the same way.

The worth of the candle was not far behind: today, a set of 15 taper candles from Michaels will set you back a measly $1 per candle. Okay, only slightly less expensive (I am kind of saddened to report, because this does take some of the wind out of my pathos) than these $2 a piece basic lightbulbs from Amazon, but you get the picture.

But that was then. This is now, where - in my world anyway - I measure value largely by how much peace an experience brings me. Peace can be convenience, which is why I value my phone, my Macbook, my Subaru. But peace can also be…peace. Mindfulness. Rest. Which is why I value my bed, my bathtub, the 9:30 hour when I retire to the bedroom to read and journal and scroll on Pinterest. And any one of those experiences are made more peaceful by lighting a candle.

How funny that an object whose value was once determined by the amount of work it could produce is now an object whose value is determined by the amount of work (and general modernity) I distance myself from when I opt to read with a cup of tea and taper candle instead of doomscrolling.

This is the evolution that’s captured me, of late: the taper candle whose long-term value has been evolved from work to relaxation in a matter of centuries.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the taper candle existed only for work. candles have long been used in religious and spiritual practices. The candle is a deeply symbolic object (no shit: birthdays, Hanukkah, the wedding mass, to name a few). And to this symbolism, I propose the following addition: the idea that rest can and does have real value. That we can aspire to a world where work, production, and commerciality is not the highest held ideal, but one of quiet slowness. That this slowing is evolution, not devolution. That we, too, can change, as the candle has.

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