Scratches and Marks

The other day while doing some home improvement I sat down to rest for a few minutes at my dining room table. As I sat there trying not to think about all I had to do, I was idly looking at the surface of our table. It is covered in scratches, marks, dings, and stuff that is probably the result of a child being sloppy while eating. It doesn't matter how often you clean it, those kids just keep coming back.

I thought back to years ago when I bought the table and I specifically looked for a table with a top made from solid wood so it could one day be refinished. Knowing that kids would render any furniture to devastation given enough time, I tried to get something with durability. Thoughts of refinishing that table keep coming back to me. It gets so much use, it is dire need of some TLC.

Our house is crowded with lots of kids and their friends seem to be coming and going a lot. And quite often, the dining room table is the center of our little home. Granted, a few children may seclude themselves away to watch TV or play video games in another room, but invariably, the dining room table becomes the communal water hole. All the herd seems to gather there at one time or another.

When kids and adults come through the back door, anything and everything in their hands seems to be deposited on the table, at least for a while until they get it moved, usually a forced issue by mealtimes. And the same happens when leaving. The table becomes a staging area where stuff is piled before it is removed from the house.

So I sat there thinking about how worn the table looked now after years of use. And in doing so I thought of countless homework papers, school projects, tax forms, computers, and a wide assortment of household items that have at one time or another had some quality time on the surface of that table. So many things have happened around that table, mostly good, but some not so good, and a few which are downright bad.

My old table is at times a work bench, a lab bench, an artists horizontal easel, a desk, a chair, an examination table, a really big shelf, a podium, and sometimes, when the time is right, it is bared, cleaned, and becomes a place to eat.

There are years of memories scratched and marked into the surface of that wooden table. But still it serves us in so many ways. Its not as pretty as it used to be, but just as valuable to me. Perhaps more so now that I think about it.

One day I will probably refinish that old table and give it a fresh look. I don't need to see the marks and scratches to be reminded of all the good times had at that table. I carry them in my memories always.

Each of us are in ways like that old table. We are many things to many people, trying to help where we can, getting scratched, marked, and scarred through life. We may look worn at times, but there are countless memories for each of us along the way.

Come to think of it, I could use some refinishing myself.

Copyright 2011, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)