Of the Table

Eating food is, I think, a deeply personal and vulnerable act. If there was ever a place where our oddities, quarks, twitches, and bad habits were expressed, the dinner table would be it. It is interesting then that so much of our shared community with others happens around the meal table. "Let us break bread together" is that cry to share our personal and vulnerable space with another person. So what do our tables look like? How large or small are they? How many seats do we have at them, and who is allowed a seat?

Service-learning, I think, is especially concerned with the nature of the table. Service-learning resists a model of one way service, but rather advocates for a reciprocity in which there is a dynamic exchange. As such, service-learning is about creating a space for dialog and mutuality. Service-learning practice, at its best, is in the business of crafting strong tables where bread can be eaten with others, and authentic community imbibed. It then remains the perpetual task of service-learning practice to ensure that there are enough chairs at any given table, and that more and more people are afforded a place at the tables that populate our lives. For this task we must be committed to constantly questioning our assumptions and constrained perspective. It is this process of questioning assumptions and beliefs that we then forge the materials to build new chairs for more people to sit at the table.