day no. 16,442: contabulation

Matthew 7:24-27

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

I love words. So, when I saw my friend, Josiah's, recent post, I was not only excited to learn about a new word (contabulation), but also to learn that my old friend has taken to the love of words and treasuring thereof by reading through an old dictionary. Too many words have been put out to pasture and it is high time we leave the 99 to retrieve some of them.

Contabulation, noun - the act of laying with boards, or of flooring; the floor laid. (Webster's Dictionary, 1828)

Baseboards are a baseline. They provide a foundation for other things. A contabulation is the surface on which babies will crawl, meals will be prepped, love will be made, jokes will be told, toes will be stubbed, furniture will be scratched, and milk will be spilled. Lives are built on something, days are filled somewhere. Good flooring can be taken advantage of, but bad flooring cannot be ignored. It causes more problems than it solves. Good flooring, however, is easily an after thought. It is an after thought, however, because it was thought through first. 

The traditions, customs, and culture of our lives are easy to ignore if they are in tact and engaged. They become more obvious when they are off kilter or out of whack. We need to labor to lay down solid foundations so that we can have the fun of playing games on them. You cannot dance on a damaged floor. Watching your step may be akin to dance class, but not having to watch them is the fun and freedom of movement.