The Chinese Altar Table

The sofa table is a dark polished wood in the style of a Chinese altar table.  It is not an antique and has never been used as an altar table. It is long and narrow and once would have been placed against a wall and have been used for offerings to the gods and the ancestors.  Each week as I polish it with a soft cloth and beeswax polish I wonder who made it, where the wood came from that was used to craft it, who cut and shaped the wood.  I wish those unnamed workers well as it is a pleasure to own such a lovely piece of furniture.  Each item we possess is a link to other times, other places, other cultures, other people.