Season of Promise

It’s spring, the season full of promise, and a whole new crop of graduates is about to step out into the big wide world. How easy it is to look at our bright, shining children and burst with pride at their talent and potential. I was basking in the glow of graduation weekend along with everybody else until one of the signs in our store made me pause and reflect.

The little Tom Jones Drink’s Table by Stickley is a special purchase item. As a limited edition piece, it represents value to the collector. It also represents hope and opportunity to 500 school children in central Africa, for all profits from the sale of the Tom Jones drink table go to support construction of a new school for children who have no other access to education. As I look at the small model of the new facility with its modest size and basic construction, I know that it will look like a dream come true to the children lucky enough to go there; yet I cannot help but contrast it with the comparatively sumptuous education that my sons have enjoyed — the updated technology, the arts and music, the new classrooms and labs and athletic facilities. And I feel a little embarrassed.