Eating Dinner As a Family Helps.
We’ve been isolated for the better part of three weeks now.
Most of the time, we’re all on separate computers. I’m not sure this is the best way to be, but it is easiest.
But sometimes, we do family things. We go for walks and bike rides. We hang out together on the porch. We play board games and watch movies and laugh, like we did in the old days.
In fact, the best thing about this horrific, world-ending pandemic is that we’re together as a family. It’s a little like summer vacation on some days. On others, it’s like an evening where both kids have a lot of homework, but we still have a little time together.
It’s hard to believe that anything good could come of a pandemic. But as long as we stay healthy, some good is happening.
Shane was talking last night about some of his beliefs, about God, about fate, about the world. This was an impromptu conversation that happened over dinner, and carried on for at least an hour afterward.
The discussion was philosophical and intellectual and incredibly interesting. All four of us were involved, and Shane shared deep and profound thoughts that gave me a glimpse into his psyche I’d never seen before.
I don’t know if that conversation would have happened without us all being stuck here in this house, being forced to cook our own dinner and sit down as a family.
I think about that commercial that says “Over 99% of teens will be offered illegal drugs before they graduate.” It says eating dinner as a family helps. I don’t know if that’s true, but eating dinners together lately sure have made a difference in our lives.
We used to eat dinner together as a family nearly every night. In fact, we would go around the table and tell about “one good thing” that happened to each of us during the day. This lasted for years and years.
Shane got a box of cards once that inspired dinner conversation. The cards had a ton of questions about meaningful things, and one question could keep us talking for twenty minutes.
We started having “Whatever Wednesday” when the kids were pretty young. Each person made whatever he wanted to eat, even if it was crap – although I made it clear that “Whatever Wednesdays” would not continue if the boys didn’t make proper food for themselves.
Then we got busy. The kids got busy after school and I went back to work at about the same time.
Sometimes we had “Whatever Wednesday” and “Whatever Monday.” We started getting a lot of take-out, which didn’t always make it back to the dining room table. Both boys had play rehearsals and other extracurriculars, and often they had different schedules so that one would be hungry long before the other one.
Pretty soon we were eating at different times, sometimes different foods. Then I discovered my food issues, and I stopped cooking altogether.
But now Bill is home more often – not every day, because he has an “essential” job – but he is home. And Bill can cook. He’s been making dinners that everyone can enjoy. And even if family dinners are brief – without the high-level philosophical discussion – we get to see each other, talk to each other, have some one-on-one conversation. We get to say, “How are you today?”
Best of all, everyone is doing pretty great. The circumstances suck, but so far, we are all okay. And truly, that’s all that matters.