Restoration: What is worth saving?

About 18 months ago, Amy and I rescued a dining table from her grandmother’s old house.  The house has a leaky roof and rain was seeping through to the table.  It was only a matter of time before the table was ruined.

There is nothing especially noteworthy about the table – at least not to most observers.  It is a traditional farm table made of pine.  The legs and frame had a dark stain and the top was unfinished.  My guess is that it was locally made 75-100 years ago, and the top had been replaced somewhere along the way.  Five layers of vinyl tablecloths offered some protection from the rain dripping in though one leg had a bit of rot.  Its monetary value was minimal at best.

The actual value is twofold.  One, the table is functional and will look great in a mountain home.  Other tables could fill the space just as well, but this one has rugged character that goes a step beyond simple function and utility – it has a history of staying power.

Second, there is a strong emotional value to the piece.  For decades meals were eaten around this table, preceded by prayers of thanksgiving and supplication.  After school snacks were wolfed down before kids headed out for evening chores.  Amy's grandfather was a pastor so many of the community's problems were addressed at this very table. So, it is much more than a piece of furniture.

I started refinishing the table about a month ago.  I thought it would only be a matter of stripping away the old finish and replacing it with new.  A question from the beginning was how much to “clean up” and what imperfections to leave.  The boards on the top showed some water damage, and were loose and uneven.

So I removed the individual boards, glued them back together as a whole and then sanded the entire top surface.  The boards were resistant to bending from their previous shape so clamps and glue and screws were required to pull them back to where they needed to be.  Then, it took aggressive work with a belt sander to smooth out the uneven spots and to make the five separate boards one unified table top.

We opted for a walnut finish and three coats of polyurethane for protection.  I feel the character has been preserved and it is a functional piece that will last another 100 years.

As I worked on the table, I thought about how those in positions of authority are accountable for disciplining individuals in their organizations.  Human Resources departments have policies, churches have scripture, and parents draw from a variety of sources to aid them in applying discipline.  Most of us hear “punishment” when we hear someone talking of discipline.  While there may be a punitive aspect to discipline, true discipline goes beyond steps taken to punish behavior or actions.  At its root, discipline is training.

I considered how easy it would be to simply scrap the table and go buy a new one.  We sometimes do that with employees – look for a way to remove them from the organization and hire someone who is (hopefully) a better fit.  And Michael Cheshire writes in Why We Eat Our Own about how churches often “discard” members who struggle with sin.  We have a tendency to look for the easiest way out of a situation, especially those situations that make us uncomfortable.

We sometimes close our eyes and hope that a personnel problem will go away on its own.  Amy stored the table for over a year and its condition did not change.  Change took removing old nails, gluing the boards back together, and hours of sanding – all hard, dirty work.  It takes work and persistence to change behavior.  Most of all it takes a firm vision of our desired outcome.

As I look at the table in the dining area, I realize that this wasn’t a refinishing job after all.  Refinishing is just removing the old finish and replacing it with new - it is cosmetic at best.  This was a restoration project.  The goal was restoring the table to its original complex value.  That goal has been met.

I wonder how much stronger our organizations would be if we came view those who fall short of our expectations as restoration, instead of refinishing, projects?