Long slow suppers

Hi there. Each week I will post an excerpt of one of the thousands of things I’ve written in the last 25 years, and then follow it up with some modern context or point of view. Today’s piece from the archives was from my newsletter, and was written in summer of 2019. Enjoy! – HH

One consequence to the amazing sort of life I have had the good fortune to lead is that I know, and have gotten to work with, a lot of all different sorts of people who live all over the world. And this last week, one of those people happened to be in Jackson, MS, where I live, and so we had him over for dinner.

Eating with people is one of my most important spiritual practices. When I say things like that, I know I risk losing some people, but it’s true. I believe the Divine, the Universe, God, whatever you want to use as a metaphor for the organizing principle of the universe, is known in a unique way when we share a meal with another person.

So, when I found out Melvin was in town, then of course we will have him over for dinner. After all, our house was picked out with that in mind. The meal wasn’t fancy – red beans and rice, with a simple cobbler and good vanilla ice cream for dessert – but the experience of a long, slow dinner with lots of laughter, plotting future goodness, and sharing our victories and failures since we last laid eyes on each other was priceless.

His coworker thanked us for inviting her, and for the meal. And then, as sometimes happens, I said something off the cuff that was the right thing, and true.

“I think that we all agree that in the better world we dream of, there would be lots of meals like this one was. But the thing is, we don’t have to wait for that better world to come about – we can have those meals now. And by doing that, we build the better world we dream of.”

Here is to more long, slow suppers, and to the building of a better world.

Six years later…

COVID was 9 months away from kicking our ass when I wrote this. We went three years where we didn’t have anyone who didn’t live here at our table. And we were much poorer for it.

It may just be me, but I think the pandemic broke something in our fabric. I don’t get invited to peoples houses for supper nearly as much as I did before the pandemic. I hear that from other people too. And I think we are poorer for it.