Community Table The table is both location and symbol of our work and us. We are from different backgrounds, but meet and work to create a wholeness that maybe doesn’t yet exist.
The table, and we, are collages of mixed “materials.” We come together from diverse life circumstances in relation to Over-the-Rhine. Some have lived or worked in the neighborhood for a long time – decades; some for a few years; and some are new to the community. The materials in the table reflect this: in the very old (support beam from a 100+ year old building); in the pieces that were in O-t-R for a decade or so (the tabletops that come from shelves from a store at 12th and Jackson); and in the material that is brand new. The new material also reminds us that we collaborators gather around the table to make something new – we are a community of a variety of Over-the-Rhine people meeting to get to know each other, work together, and create a new kind of social fabric that we are not seeing out on the streets.
The table has six sides, and six distinct parts – the number six is traditionally associated with community, communication, unity, diplomacy, solutions, compassion, interfacing, balance, union. As we pull the table sections apart to work individually, then bring the parts back together to meet and share as a whole, we are reminded of the value of difference in making strong community.
