What A Waste – Revisited

It seems fitting that the blog I got the most feedback on so far is the one about a chunk of wood that got me all misty-eyed.  If you haven’t read it, yet, you can CLICK HERE and get caught up.

Why would I say it seems fitting?  It seems fitting because I believe everyone out there feels constantly picked apart, flaws magnified.  You have the Facebook and Instagram effect – got a blog about that one too.  CLICK HERE to check that one out.  Any one reading this that’s ever had a job has felt the micro-managing, watchful eye of your employer.  If your employer isn’t watching you, your customers certainly are.  There’s this constant urge/demand to “perform” coming at us from every angle; whether from other people or ourselves.

That being said, there’s a second part to this story I couldn’t help but see as ironic.

That chunk of waste is going to become part of a door after all!  But, that’s not the irony…

If I were a piece of wood in a door, I’d want to be something prominent, like the stiles, rails, or maybe even a raised panel.  The stiles are what the hinges attach to and the knob is fastened to.  They are the functional, get the job done players.  They keep the door swinging and help keep the home secure.  The rails are at the top and bottom of the door.  They are the unifiers.  They keep the stiles from going their separate ways and, in the case a raised panel is involved in the design, frame in that good-looking panel.  The raised panel; well that thing can take a door from plain to high-society.  It’s the pizzazz / marketing department – this isn’t a door, it’s a gateway to a home filled with fabulous people.  Working together, they make a door functional and fancy.

That piece of “waste” wood is going to become quarter round.  The reason why is because it has too many “flaws” to be anything “prominent.”  The quarter round is a ½” by ½” piece of rounded sticking that holds the glass in…. yea…. so exciting.  It gets to be small and almost completely overlooked.

The interesting thing about the glass in a door, especially when there is a lot of glass in a door, is that it provides the majority of the structural integrity for the door.  I realize that fact may not make a whole lot of sense.  Glass breaks quite easily.  It’s only 1/8” thick.  Even if it’s insulated glass, you’re still looking at just ¼” of solid material.  The wood is at least 1 ¾” thick.  Glass doesn’t warp.  Glass stays square.  Glass has an amazing amount of strength vertically and horizontally.  Sure, you can throw a rock through it and it shatters, but have you ever tried to crush a piece of glass from the top and bottom or from the sides?  Good luck.

Wood swells, cracks, and warps.  Before the glass is put in a door, if you put enough pressure on opposite corners, it’s not hard to squeeze a door completely out of square and render all of those useful and fancy door components worthless.

So, the quarter round, small as it may seem, is what holds in arguably one of the most important pieces of a door.  It becomes one with the stiles on the sides.  It unifies with the rails on the top and bottom.  It supports and frames in the most important structural component of a door.  There’s your irony.

Look, I’m no big shot.  I’m a guy that works hard, loves his family, tries to serve others well, and loves him some Jesus.  Each day, I wear different hats.  Some days, I’m the guy that gets it done – no time for anything fancy; there’s a job to do.  Other days, I’m the guy trying to keep things from falling apart and keep everyone focused on reaching a common goal.  Every now and then, I get to put on my fancy jeans and a shirt with buttons on it and make an impression.  But most days, I’m just the supporting cast.  It doesn’t seem big, but I’m quite positive that when I step back and look back at my life, I’ll realize that it was in those moments that the foundation of my legacy was built.

A piece of quarter round?  Yeah.  Sounds good to me.