HERITAGE TABLE: THIS WEDDING GIFT TO MY SON, Made during the course of the winter,

written by

Drausin Wulsin

posted on

April 27, 2014

HERITAGE TABLE042614.jpg

THIS WEDDING GIFT TO MY SON, Made during the course of the winter,

And delivered over Easter weekend to his abode in Manhattan, has led me to ponder the meaning of a table.

What happens around and upon a table?

  • Nutrition is administered,
  • Newspapers are read,
  • Homework is conducted,
  • Groceries are stacked,
  • Artful food is presented,
  • Delicious meals are savored,
  • Stories are recounted,
  • Community is gathered,
  • Values are taught,
  • Emotions are shared and concepts pondered,
  • Rest is taken,
  • Love is offered...

...rendering the eating table a potent place.

This presumes one, in fact, sits at a table. Many cultures employ a different surface for these functions, which is the great earth itself. That indeed is the ultimate table..., and would be the ultimate wedding gift, but I couldn't pull that off.

At risk of belaboring the topic, the wood of the pictures above and below come from 100-year-old poplar milled for a granary on our farm.

We took down the sagging granary twenty years ago, but saved the boards from the walls, which are 18 inches wide - of greater width than can be found in trees today.

Converting the worn, dusty boards into surfaces fit for worship is a journey in itself, consisting of much sanding, endless scrubbing with steel wool, and coats of varnish applied, until the grain of the wood races forward and sings of completion. The final product is replete with: nail holes, mouse-teeth gnawings, cracks, and knots - a completely imperfect version of a finished surface and so perfectly authentic.

Why do many of us engage is much labor and activity surrounding food? At minimum, it has to do with bodily nutrition, but what drives us must be something more, like the list above and the feeding of soul and spirit...

What do you think?

042614a.jpg

042614b.jpgcd8d2d318aabd4e2-table.jpg

We are beginning to focus on the Farm Tour on Saturday, May 31, from 11 - 3. Cost will be $10 per person. Send an email or let us know in person, if you would like to attend.

Last, we look forward to connecting with you tomorrow at the Winter Farmers Market at Clark Montessori. We will have chili, lamb, and beef in all the usual cuts.

Thank you for sitting at the great banquet table of life with us.

Drausin & Susan

More from the blog

Sacred Place

It is a privilege to know a sacred place, as I feel I do. In some ways, it seems sacred places are supposed to be scarce and remote, like Stonehenge, Chartres Cathedral, the Taj Mahal, or abandoned Pueblo dwellings. Large landscapes, like the desert, ocean, or mountain ranges feel imbued with the divine. Alaska, the Amazon, and the Serengeti invite a sense of awe. One travels to such places, in pilgrimage. And sometimes such places reorganize the pilgrim's sense of order, inviting disorder or change, that can be both painful and uplifting.

Big Muddy

Here is the Lower Mississippi River, 45 feet below normal pool. Over Thanksgiving, Susan and I shoehorned ourselves onto a cruise ship to learn about the lower Mississippi and its bayou. We started in Memphis and ended up in New Orleans, with stops along the way to explore river towns. This river is the third longest on the planet, providing drainage to 40% of North America. It has historically deposited silt yearly in its floodplains, producing topsoil 120 feet deep, making these soils some of the richest in the world. Vast wetland forests grew beside its banks, of cypress, oaks, and sycamores, populated by a rich array of black bears, deer, bobcats, alligators, and aquatic life. This was the legendary bayou.

Streams & Souls

Streams and souls seem to share character. They are life-giving, they are coveted, they can be impeded, they can be channelized, they can be overwhelmed, they flood, they dry up, they flow downhill, they are a force of both change and constancy, they lie at the center of a community, they will not be denied, and because of this great complexity, they attract periodic resistance. So, it seems that streams may serve as a metaphor for the journey of the soul.