Bringing Something to the Table

Posted bymalcolmsmusingscomPosted inUncategorized

When I worked in school there were teachers and secretaries, caretakers and cleaners, cooks and teaching assistants, experts in artistic display, communication, finance. Each brought a unique, vital contribution to the table. The children and the school community benefitted.

‘To bring to the table: ‘to contribute or supply a valuable ability or quality to a joint work, activity, or attempt.’

The saying originally referred to the initial sum of money that a gambler brought to a card game, which other players could then win.

Our ‘Seagull Theatre’ is being refurbished. Painters, carpenters, carpet-fitters and electricians have been involved, a funding agency has provided the money. Yesterday seating was being fitted by experts who’ve installed seating at the O2 arena and Albert Hall. Des has managed the project. Many individuals have each brought something to the table.

Yesterday was ‘Blue Monday’. The third Monday in January is said to be the most depressing day of the year in the UK. Cynics say that its been invented by travel companies who want to sell summer holidays; psychologists say that our mental health isn’t that straightforward or predictable.

Whether it’s Blue Monday – or a different day of a different colour (pink Tuesday or scarlet Wednesday?) there are certainly days when I feel that I have nothing to bring to the table.

In the old (apocryphal) Christmas nativity scene everyone brings something for the Christ-child. The innkeeper provides the stable, his wife brings fresh straw, Mary brings her motherly love, Joseph brings protection from danger. A shepherd brings a lamb, wise men bring gifts; the cow provides milk, the sheep provides wool for a warm coat, the donkey provides willing service…

And I turn up with nothing for the Christ-child or anybody else. It’s my blue Monday. I have nothing to bring to the table – or the stable, no sum of money for others to win, no skill that others can benefit from.

But I come. I bring myself to the Christ-child. And I realise that’s enough.

14 thoughts on “Bringing Something to the Table”

  2. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about what we have and what we have to offer. I agree-we should be grateful for what we have and be generous with it. The less we have, the more likely we are to appreciate what we have. 🙂

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  3. It is enough and I am so thankful. Great Musing Malcolm.
    Yesterday was the coldest day of winter here so far. -40 wind chills (both Celsius and Freiheit meet here). Our household is sick and under the covers. Good thing I didn’t know it was a “depression” day.

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      1. No, we get depressed. I actually have that form of depression I fight to manage every year from lack of sunlight. supposedly about a 15% category. This is the first time in a long time it hasn’t kicked in yet this late in the season. I think getting out and nearly freezing my nubbins off with the camera in winters beauty has helped a lot. I have also split an enormous amount of firewood by hand rather than machinery for the exercise.

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  4. “What can I give him, poor as I am?
    If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb;
    If I were a wise man I would do my part;
    But what I can I give him – give my heart.”
    Perhaps then the bleak mid-winter isn’t quite so bleak.

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    1. That paragraph got lost in the edit, Bryan. It was one of my starting points – as was:
      ‘What gifts have we to offer for all thy love imparts
      But what thou most desirest, our humble thankful hearts’
      But here in Suffolk we’re not ploughing the fields or scattering.

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