Food And Family

After a brief hiatus, I am back on the writing train. The delay was unfortunately necessary: It's finals week for my college courses - my first college finals to be exact, so it has been especially nerve-wracking.

All in all, however, now that I am done with my finals, I do feel a huge sense of accomplishment, a sense of purpose, and a huge sense of relief!

The first blog upon my return is somewhat of a cop-out: It's my final paper that I had to write for English Comp I. The professor gave us a huge list of topics to choose from, and we had to either write three half page essays, or one that's one-and-a-half pages. I tried to write three small essays, but this subject just took on a life of its own. My professor loved it, and so I now share it with you.

Food and Family

    Ever since Norman Rockwell painted that famous image of a family gathered around a dinner table for Thanksgiving, families have endeavored to recreate that mental picture each and every November. It's not right until we capture that moment in our emotional collective minds.

    But even without that picture of a proud papa ready to share nature's bounty with his family, it has been a very important ritual that families gather together to share the evening meal with each other. I say it is a very important factor in our lives, regardless of whatever anyone else might say about it. Is the very moral fiber of this country falling apart at the seams because we no longer gather to break bread? I don't think that it's simply because of it, but it is definitely an important factor in it.

    If we look at it rationally, we come together at evening time to reunite at the hearth for many emotional and social aspects. The home is our emotional center as human beings, held together by the simple act of sharing a meal. We acknowledge each others presence, and share information with each other, many times about each other. We reconnect with each other as people; More to the fact, as human beings, in a way that even the most elaborate and sophisticated electronic device cannot replicate.

    As a community, as a country, as a world village, it is more important now that we at least try to reinstate the evening meal as a must do. It wasn't that long ago that families would not eat until the whole family was present. How does that not make someone feel needed and important - and more to the point, a member of a very special unit: the family unit?

    We have managed to overconnect ourselves to each other through electronic gadgets that do a lot of the thinking and socializing for us, allowing us to not realize our full potentials as humans. By the simple and almost sacred act of civilly eating a meal together as a family, we manage to rekindle in our souls a very necessary part of our existence.

    If we are ever to survive the greatest challenge that ever faced humanity - an ever growing sense of leisure - we must fight it at its very core; the core that initially created us, that bore us, that in effect made us who we are as people. Without it, we are simply soulless ghosts that pass in the shadow of the sun, a mere flicker of the humanity that we once had.

    Am I suggesting that all of the world's ills can be cured by simply sharing a meal with our families? No, that would be insane to say so. I am however suggesting the following: The world "out there"  is merely a reflection of our personal world inside ourselves. If all we see is disharmony, anger and mayhem then it is because we carry that around with us. If we can just share a meal with people who love us, there is a chance that all of that anger, fear and cruelty might be curtailed a bit. And then maybe, perhaps, the world can start to be set right again.

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