"Dinner is not what you do in the evening before something else. Dinner is the evening."
-Art Buchwald
"Dinner is to a day what dessert is to dinner." -Michael Dorris
Those are fresh raspberries in the bowls on the table.
The rest of the menu featured turkey burgers and grilled asparagus.
-Art Buchwald
"Dinner is to a day what dessert is to dinner." -Michael Dorris
Those are fresh raspberries in the bowls on the table.
The rest of the menu featured turkey burgers and grilled asparagus.
No, I get it. Life is crazy, and generally speaking, the average day gets crazier with each passing hour.
Once everyone gets out of bed and shoots off to where they need to be, mornings calm down and drift into reasonably focused afternoons. But as evening closes in, many of us find it a challenge to gather up the reins, get the day back under our control, and prepare - let alone serve and clean up after - an organized evening meal.
But it is so worth the effort.
I know it's easy for me to sit here with my adult daughters, two of whom live at home and help me with my dinner-making chores, and preach about going the extra mile, but hey, I served my time in the trenches. And while I won't pretend that every dinner I put on the table during my daughters' growing up years was performance art, I'll say this.
I tried.
Whether the menu offered up a pricey roast or grilled cheese sandwiches - again - I somehow found time and energy to see that the table was set properly, to use actual serving bowls, to bring out the cloth napkins. To light a candle.
And while the parents' efforts at coherent conversation were often drowned out by a cacophony of giggles and general chaos, we kept chugging away at developing a proper dinner mood.
Now, as I look back, I'm so glad I kept trying. Sit-down dinners are worth the extra effort, and our meal times together helped to form the bedrock of our family life.
Last night, as I was stirring up the contents of various pots and pans on the stove, I glanced across the room to see the table, ready and waiting for our meal.
In these crazy days of coronavirus upset, when every aspect of life feels jarringly off and strangely unfamiliar, and we can't help but grieve for the life we used to know, I take particular comfort in doing dinner.
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Read more stories about life with Covid-19 here in suburban Seattle:
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