So, here’s an odd thing.

I like wooden forms for concrete.

Granted, I had this epiphany while walking a day or two ago at lunch – a mile each direction in 100 degree heat  - but it’s not a new thing, the liking, that is.  It's not a sign of heatstroke, to be sure.  Walking past a construction site with dozens of forms for columns stacked alongside the street, I was struck by the oddness of the thought.  I like them.  No, actually, that’s not the odd thing.  I respect them.  That’s the strange bit, really. Liking can be any kind of little thing, from aesthetics to utility.  Respecting elevates and personifies, particularly when applied to a mere object.

It’s no mystical thing.  What I respect about them is the fact that they seem to be made out of whatever wood is lying around at the time – planks and posts and panels of whatever fits.  It’s lumber that for whatever reason didn’t make the cut for studs or joists, and definitely not for finishing work.  Either they started out “substandard” or something happened along the way to get them that way.  So, the benchwarmers got into the game after all, and it’s their job to make sure that the heavy hitters coming next make it to the plate.  They create the space for the concrete to season and perform.  To paraphrase a millennia old metaphor, they are the “stones that the builders have rejected.”  They have become the cornerstones.  Rather, they have become what teaches the cornerstone its job.  They mentor it until it is mature and then they move on to their next role.  For those who have seen Bull Durham , they are the Crash Davises of lumber.  For those who haven’t … well, go see Bull Durham and then it should all be clear.

Do I fear that I am substandard?  Is that my point of attraction?  No, that type of modesty is not a gift I possess.  I am fairly unassuming, but am frequently found to outperform others expectations, nay, assumptions.  There I have a connection with the less-than-amazing-first-impressions lumber.  They aren’t the first picked for the team, but in the long run, they easily outperform most of the rest of the team.  On top of that, their contributions last.  They outlast the efforts of stud and joists and faces to shape the tenor and aesthetic of a space.

Ok, now I’m clearly projecting.  That makes a good place to stop.