I will never forget my first table.
Back home in Denver after 13 years in Los Angeles, I had few friends and was acclimating to the city I grew up in. I soon met Cari, who invited me to what she called a table.
I showed up with a loaf of sourdough, a bottle of wine and a little anxiety, expecting eight or nine strangers. Instead, I found an 80-foot table, soon to be filled with 80 humans from all across Denver, representing different ethnicities, faiths and stories.
Ten years later, like a movie in slow motion, I can still remember the conversation, laughter and how the golden light of a mid-Autumn Denver sunset illuminated people’s faces.
But of all the images in my memory, one thing so deeply impacted my heart – it’s probably one of the main reasons you are sitting at The 528 Table.
Seeing my name – Tim – written on a white card, reserving a seat just for me.
Someone anticipated me. Perhaps days before, someone thought of me and planned for my presence and place at the table.
Not only did I feel special, but I felt seen, not just one of many guests at the table, but my whole self, my whole story – all represented in my name. Tim.
And so for you stranger, who is about to be our neighbor. We’ve set a place for you at the table. We’ve been anticipating all of who you are, your story and the joy of your presence.
May this table continue to shape our city where more of us feel less like strangers, and more like we belong, and where each of our names are written on place cards, anticipating our presence and all of who we are.
Tim Jones Executive Director, Longer
Tables
