Damascus

Folded and Flattened. Heated multiple times, and hammered repeatedly. The traditional way was labor intensive, and somewhat of a mystery. Today, with modern methods and tools, good Damascus steel is only slightly less intensive. There are no real shortcuts, only technological enhancements to the process.

So it goes also with my children. They leave Friday, and with them another piece seems missing. And yet another pounding blow from which to recover. They too have gone through the heat of living under a different house with different rules and totally different lives. And they fold over again to the other, to be reshaped yet again. And in a few months, they come down for summer, and the process completes another cycle.

Sharp, heterogeneous, durable. Beautiful and useful.