Polished Silver

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.”

This excerpt from The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien is what kept entering my head as I cleaned an old blackened silver tray. As I rubbed the tarnish and saw small dots where silver plating was gone, I thought about the distressed metal underneath the silver plating. The tray had a history before I bought it at a garage sale. How many wonderful party snacks had been placed on this tray for guests, or had it been in a musty garage for many years? Did it find first life in the hands of a bride from a loving aunt? Had this tray been found by another woman at a sale ten years before and used once for a special Friday night card party? As I imagined its many misuses, I saw my reflection appearing in the center of the tray. Half polished silver framed by oxidation, reflected eyes that had wandered far. Tolkien’s words lay lightly on the face in the tray and it shines with new purpose.