Power Tools

I know that I will receive some flack for this, but I have always considered almost all antiques to be in exceedingly poor taste. To me, the best sign of good taste is a desire to fit in with one’s own time. People who fill their living rooms with china vases and antique coffee tables show themselves to be uncultured and given to an embarrassing level of nostalgia. This is why I was willing to fight so hard to get a modern coffee table into our living room. Houses without modern coffee tables are likely to be the homes of Bolsheviks and barbarians.

Of course, my husband has always felt very different about this matter. He hates modern contemporary coffee tables. He hates any form of contemporary furniture. He fancies himself a progressive, but I think when he starts to talk politics, he comes off as rather a romantic old fool. Nonetheless, he does have the sense to let me decorate the house – at least most of the house. Modern coffee tables, however, were another matter.

He has no objection to the modern office furniture. At least I have been able to overcome his objections long ago. The contemporary coffee table is another matter. You see, he has an antique coffee table that he received from his great aunt when she passed on. She was a terrible old woman, but he was very close to her. I offered to put it safely in storage So I could decorate the living room with modern coffee tables, but he would have none of it. He had decided that this was where he would make a stand. Modern coffee tables provoke modern thoughts, and my husband is a classicist. He would not given in as easily as he had in the past.

I finally won, but had to use a bit of trickery. Until we were able to join our friends in having modern coffee tables, I simply refused to have coffee in the living room. We would entertain guests, have a delicious meal, and then take our coffee in the dining room. My husband could not stand this. It violated his old world sense of propriety. Soon he gave in to my demands, and we had a modern coffee table in the living room. I loved winning that war. It was not about modern coffee tables. It was about power, power which is mine now!