When I was a kid, we had big family dinners with all the family around a gigantic (in my eyes) kitchen table.
I’m working class so the big kitchen was where we dined… also, it was closer to the food. 🙂
We owned a dining table “for finer occasions”, but I only saw it in use two times; at a wedding, and for a big puzzle we got from somebody.
We had a big kennel (German Shepherds), chickens and lots of different vegetables growing all over this little farm.
There was a hand-powered pump for cold water, fire for warmth and an outhouse with a picture of the king & queen (Swedish tradition).
Dinners was a big event. Everybody talked, discussed, argued and listened but most of all we laughed. This was in the mid 60s and I learned a lot around that table.
Fast forward to today.
Today, with many people working two, sometimes three jobs, or families being so poor they have to choose which day they can give their children food… there’s no chance to sit down for a meal with your family.
Very few single persons eats at a kitchen table nowadays. A quick microwave dinner in front of the TV, falling asleep, rocked by the force feeding from the media, and then back to work.
Seem to me like the traditional big kitchen tables are going extinct.
It’s evolution but more and more natural meeting places are disappearing.
We need human interaction. We grow in most meetings.
… or maybe I just miss the feeling of ten atheists, sitting around a table, eating and sharing ideas…
The God Extinguisher 