Let Us Break Bread Together

Almost everything this past weekend revolved around our two-watched Nicholas and eating!


First, we ate supper before the circus on Friday night. Then during the circus, of course, we had to have a treat, which three of us ate off of!



Saturday night, when Nicholas was here for an overnight, we went out for Mexican, our favorite. When we woke up on Sunday morning, we went to Waffle House, as per our little grandmas-and-grandson tradition. (Sometimes more of the milk gets drunk if Grandma helps out!)

Not long after breakfast, we went to see Curious George at the theater and all ate the prerequisite popcorn. I told Donica we were making up for lost time. We really missed him when we were in Hannover for the month of January!

But that's not the whole of it when it comes to eating over the weekend! Before the circus on Friday, I rendezvoused down near the Atlanta airport with a long, lost friend from Pasadena days. We calculated that it had been 23 years since we had last seen each other and then spent 3 hours catching up, most of it over lunch.

After we took Nicholas home on Sunday, Donica and I went to see Mrs. Henderson Presents (the incredible Dame Judi Dench!) in another theater and followed it up with a wonderful Thai supper, just the two of us.

What is it about eating together! We have to eat, of course, but what happens when we do it together?! Sometimes people are shocked when they hear that during my growing-up days in Michigan, all 10 of us in my family ate supper together, sitting down! Every night! And on weekends, we also ate lunch together.

I'm reminded of the Negro spiritual we sang back then:

Let us break bread together on our knees,
let us break bread together on our knees.
When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun,
O Lord, have mercy on me.

Let us drink wine together on our knees,
let us drink wine together on our knees.
When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun,
O Lord, have mercy on me.

For the slaves, this was a liberation song. A song that hinted at justice to come when all would sit down and eat together. No more suffering. No more struggle. No more injustice.

Have you noticed how often we bloggers talk about food? The photos of it, the recipes, the descriptions of meals together. The "drooling" comments! I 'spect it has much more to do than with filling our hunger cravings, don't you! It's like there's something "eucharistic" about it...breaking bread and drinking wine.

But the key word, I think, is TOGETHER! Let's keep doing it...and doing it well, with tradition, pomp and circumstance, and fun.