Moving from the Buffet Line to the King’s Table (Part 2): Tasting Community
My family enjoys a good buffet. There’s enough food to feed the hungriest parent and plenty of options to satisfy the pickiest child. However, my wife and I have discovered one major drawback to our trips the local buffet – we may show up together, but we rarely eat together.
With three children ages 5, 9, and 11, we find ourselves taking shifts to the buffet line. My wife takes one child through the line, and I’ll take another, while our oldest child works her way through on her own. Once our two youngest children have their food, I will typically stay with the children at the table, while my wife gets her food. Once she returns, I’m ready to take round 1 through the buffet line. Finally! I sit down and grab my fork to eat, and then I hear a voice next to me, “Daddy, I’m ready for seconds.”
Welcome to the buffet – where we all get what we want, but scarcely enjoy it together! This illustrates why increasingly, we prefer a “family meal” at home or in a sit-down restaurant to the everyone’s-pleased-but-not-together experience of the local buffet. We miss the joy of tasting, not only our food, but the community we have together.
