I’m a regular shopper at a grocery store a few miles from where I work. I often take trips there on my lunch break to pick up their six dollar sushi plate, which I then carry over to their cafeteria and eat while reading a magazine or newspaper. Unless it’s full, I usually park in a small section of the lot right in front of the building’s doors. For some reason, every time I walk in from one of those close parking spots, I’ve noticed the small drainage ditch that’s built right into the parking lot surface. It’s covered with perforated grating, and it can’t be wider than a few inches.

I’ve always found that the middle of the parking lot seemed like a perplexing place for that drainage ditch, but now that I think about it, it makes sense. I’m trying to visualize it now; the actual ditch is probably six inches deep or so, and it’s covered by a silvery-colored piece of perforated grating. I’m guessing that the grating is made of stainless steel, and it’s maybe an inch or two in thickness. Whatever it’s made of, and however thick it is, it’s strong enough to withstand the force of cars driving directly over it. Regardless of the puzzled place placement of the grating, I’ve found myself impressed at the resilience of such a small piece of metal to such great force. That’s what makes all grating products impressive. We see them and appreciate their impressive duality of presence. They are perforated, which means that they selectively allow or deny things to pass through them. In the case of my amazing drainage grate, water that would otherwise pool and get customers’ feet wet is otherwise caught and directed elsewhere, without impeding the movement of vehicles or posing a tripping hazard for pedestrians. This combination of performance and unobtrusiveness is what makes perforated grating the valuable utility that it is.