Since Saturday’s Latty/Willis Family Reunion, I’ve been thinking a lot of Etta and what life must have been like for Levi and Edna Latty and their children. And, I’ve thought about families and their importance in American life. Actually, families are America’s life and their importance cannot be stressed enough. I like to think of what a typical day might have been like for my mother and the rest of the Latty family. No matter what their day contained, whether work in the fields, school for the children, wash day for Ma or hours over a hot iron smoothing out wrinkles in shirts and dresses, at night, they all sat down to eat supper together.
At our reunion, the highlight of the day was eating together. While we ate, we talked. We found out about individual victories or concerns; we listened to what was important to someone else and we shared the things that worry, confuse, or bless us. Nobody fussed at anybody else at the dinner table. We accepted, offered opinions only if they were asked for, and we listened.
Today, life is busy to the point of being hectic. Sometimes it reminds me of these little battery-operated insects that run as fast as they can this way, that way, bumping into obstacles as they try to find their way out of a maze. And, eating together is almost a thing of the past. We eat while we watch television or read a book, or play a video game. Sometimes, we are so busy that we eat in the car, hurrying to the next appointment. It’s not that we mean to be uncaring or pursue futile things; it just happens.
It would be nice to reach back into the past and grasp those things that are meaningful, lasting, and conducive to character building and family-strengthening. To my way of thinking, eating together is one of those events that should never have been lost and can be retrieved with determination and effort. Just as food strengthens the body, quiet listening and sharing time strengthen individuals and families. Perhaps it’s no longer a vital part of the American family, but it could be and, to my way of thinking, it should be. It’s a way of keeping us together and keeping us strong.
“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Psalm 127:1).
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