The man and his table

I started Seth in Judo when he was six and a gang of schoolyard bullies cornered him and stole his bike. Judo gave him skills for dealing with bullies, and his confidence blossomed. The Judo years were in New Orleans, where he was born. When we moved to Austin, Texas, where I did my PhD, I enrolled him in Aikido classes, and his Sensei encouraged him to learn about Japanese culture. He had a Japanese flag hanging in his bedroom, and he acquired a world of knowledge about Samurai, Japanese mythology, Japanese history and geography. He came to love the Japanese aesthetic: simplicity of line, spaciousness, spare and clean and functional without being fussy.

There was never a month in Seth’s life with me when I was certain I would have enough money at the end of the month to buy food. Sometimes his shoes were too tight or his clothes were too small for his growing body, but I always pulled together the funds for his books, his drum lessons, and in those critical pre-teen years, Aikido.

He first learned about Noguchi tables during the Aikido years. Now, at forty-five, he and Cristina have moved into their first home with their two children, and he has just bought himself a Noguchi table. Sometimes, if we are patient enough, dreams do come true.