These past few weeks have been uniquely challenging ones for the leadership community of The Table. That said, my experience has been one of feeling profoundly blessed to serve with people that are willing, in the words of the following poem, to “jump into work head first”. And that certainly isn’t something only the leadership folks do in our community. When I look around after one of our Exchange Café gatherings, or take a glance at our calendar to see who is gathering groups of people around common interests or “just” because they want to, I see a small but vigorous bunch of humans that understand that work matters, and that even when it might feel like the load is heavy or it is taking longer than we might wish to reach a goal, we keep pulling together.
To all the people of The Table…thanks for continuing to dig deep, pull hard, and stay the course. I am blessed to part of this community.
Peace,
Tim
To Be Of Use by Marge Piercy
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like the water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
November 29, 2010 at 12:30 pm
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November 30, 2010 at 12:19 pm
What a great resource!
December 9, 2010 at 4:02 am
Do you people have a facebook fan page? I looked for one on twitter but could not discover one, I would really like to become a fan!
December 9, 2010 at 7:11 pm
A member of the church did create a facebook group at some point, but I’m not sure that it’s been kept up to date. It’s not really connected to this site. We’re still working on our online communication though, so who knows what the future will bring!
December 14, 2010 at 1:32 pm
I’m curious if it’s viable to borrow a paragraph of this post to use for my research project.
December 14, 2010 at 8:07 pm
You are welcome to borrow from what I have written, but in instances where someone else is quoted (as is the case with the poem above) you may need to seek permission from the appropriate publisher depending on the nature of the final product of your research. Thanks for your interest!
Tim
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