Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, July 03, 2007


Sharing food with another human being is an
intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.

- M. F. K. Fisher, writer on food, novelist, born on
this day, in Albion MI, 1908


I have had MFK Fisher’s book “The Art of Eating” for many years. I love just to sit and read it. I feel like I have entered deeper into Life, and into a greater understanding of the Mystery. And in such a simple thing – thoughts on Food!

Another thing that attracted me to Fisher was that her family moved to Whittier CA when she was a child. And they used to go camping in the summer on the hillsides of Laguna Beach – a place I am crazy about! (Though it sounds “better” when they went there in the early part of the 20th century.)

She is right. I have eaten some fine meals with convivial companions. And some not so fine meals with companions less so. The food was equal but an unconvivial companion(s) ruins it. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I have never really liked large dinner parties. They are an art that most people have not mastered in terms of making them work.

Many religions gather their devotees together for a “family meal”. I remember it in Brasil with the devotees of Candomble, eating with the orixas. At Chinese meals, eating with the ancestors. And of course, at the Eucharist, eating with fellow journeyers at God’s invitation. Usually I am “standing in” as host. Then and also when I’ve been standing at the rail with others, I’ve certainly been aware of the intimacy. And of the implications about how to live the meaning of my life as a “child of God”. No wonder Paul was clear about the consequences of sharing the holy meal in a cavalier manner.

The meal – any meal – is a symbol for the intimacy of any human relationship, and for the care with which all human relationships should be undertaken. Any encounter with another should not be indigled in lightly.

Brian+