Tables

At the beginning of our YAGM year, Andrea, our coordinator, placed special emphasis on communion, and this theme has traveled with us through our first months here.  She tells the story of the last supper by sharing how Jesus shared a table full of abundance and marked by inclusivity.  This was a table where friends gathered to share, converse, laugh, and imagine.  This table was a place where the possibility of a just, joyful, inclusive, and abundant world was made manifest, through sharing in conversation and eating. On this table are the empty wine glasses and bread basket we had just shared, and full pots which we planted to symbolize the growth we all are experiencing.  The plants are called "Siempre Viva," meaning "Always Alive."

Perhaps the World Ends Here
by Joy Harjo
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what,
we must eat to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the
table so it has been since creation, and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe
at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions on what
it means to be human. We make men at it,
we make women.
At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts
of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms
around our children. They laugh with us at our poor
falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back
together once again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella
in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place
to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate
the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table, and have prepared
our parents for burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow.
We pray of suffering and remorse.
We give thanks.
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table,
while we are laughing and crying,
eating of the last sweet bite.
"Perhaps the World Ends Here" by Joy Harjo, from Reinventing the Enemy's Language.