The Gift You Already Used

A thing you used and loved has a second life waiting, and you could be there when it starts.

By Neil Solomon · 2 min read

Picture a man named Harold, 71, who spent forty years building furniture in his garage. He is about to spend most of each year abroad. His workshop holds a long bench, a row of hand planes and a cabinet of chisels his father gave him.

His son Greg lives in a small apartment and has no room for any of it. A dealer offered US$600 for the whole workshop. Harold nearly said yes. Saying yes was easier than deciding.

Then he remembered the day he gave Greg a bicycle. He had picked it out himself, wrapped it badly and watched his son ride down the street. Harold still thinks about that feeling when he is low. Giving something that someone loves is one of the happiest feelings he knows.

A friend mentioned that the community college runs a woodworking class. Harold called, and the instructor introduced him to Nia, 24, who was saving to open a small cabinet shop and owned almost no tools. Harold carried his No. 5 plane to the school. He ran it down a board in front of her, and a long curl of wood rolled off the edge. Nia laughed and said she had never seen a plane do that.

Harold drove home with an empty truck. He told his wife that night that he had been given two gifts by one plane. The first was forty years of use. The second was that afternoon.

Two ways the same plane could leave