Table Talk

Logic tells me that it’s easiest to find time to talk with people I see regularly. Experience tells a different tale. Finding time to have meaningful discussions with the family members who live with me, is a challenge. 

There’s Lots Of Small Talk.

We talk all the time but it’s snatches of conversation about schedules and who’s picking up the bread. We talk about the dog and who needs the car, and how work went today. We talk all the time in small snippets that help our lives move along. We each have different schedules. Deeper discussions hardly ever seem to happen. Our lives just don’t seem to be organized that way.

Counter Culture Turned The Tables

I blame the kitchen counter for the decline in conversation for our family. Once we moved to a home with a counter to eat at, we stopped sitting around the dining room table. It’s faster to eat at the counter and easier to pass the food from the stove to consumer. It feels like working at a diner. It’s not relaxed. It’s convenient and efficient. We don’t face each other and that makes conversation difficult to start or hear.

Tables Are For Holidays

Many families eat at counters or in front of screens. It’s been a trend across the world for at least 10 years now. Face-to-face communal eating seems to be reserved for holidays. North Americans even think of it as pretentious! Too fancy for every day.*

Regular Food, Different Location

I wonder if once a week, or even twice a week, we could schedule a meal around the table?  It won’t be anything fancy, just our regular food in a different location. I wonder if we would be able to move from small talk to conversations? It’s an experiment worth trying.

Have you noticed a change in conversations when you’re around a table?

---

*https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/07/the-importance-of-eating-together/37425

---