Page 113 - Southern Oregon Magazine Winter 2019

There’s not a right answer, and it’s difficult

to point blame at any one thing. But it’s

worth our time to ask ourselves—did

we start eating alone because we became

disconnected, or did we become disconnected

because we started eating alone?

The way we change our relationship with food and eating, changes the that we believe people are an inconvenience. It’s possible that our divi-
way we relate with each other. Remember that eating and feasting is sive and disconnected modern experience is a byproduct of forgetting
something that humans have always done with each other. Excluding that eating together brings us together; that eating with people is fun-
traditional feast holidays, most of our modern society has either allowed damental to the human experience.
or encouraged us to move into a position where eating is basically an
inconvenience. It takes too long to make food, it reduces efficiency in I’m not necessarily suggesting that sitting down to dinner with the
the workplace to spend too much time doing it, there’s too much work family every night, or having structured breakfasts with the family,
cleaning up after a dinner party, the kids are just going to complain will solve society’s problems or make us better at connecting with
that they don’t like what we’re making, we’re too busy to have a meal each other. What I am suggesting, is that when we were better at con-
with people, we’re not eating the right food, we’re not eating healthy necting with each other, and when we were more skilled at finding
enough, our healthy friends will be judgmental about what and how common ground and viewing people with different opinions as still
much we eat, our friends might also be judgmental about us not eating. a part of our community, we were spending more time eating with
And all of this has transferred into how we approach traditional feast each other.
holidays. We are spending less time feasting together.
There’s not a right answer, and it’s difficult to point blame at any one
At root, if eating is ultimately an inconvenience—for whatever rea- thing. But it’s worth our time to ask ourselves—did we start eating
son—and eating with people is a fundamental piece of the human alone because we became disconnected, or did we become discon-
experience, then our move toward eating alone might be an admission nected because we started eating alone?

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