I have been thinking about the positive influence that spending time with others has on us. Food has had a way to entice social connections. For example, the bonding relationships that take place in a kitchen when cooking or allowing dialog and exchange of experiences over a served table. And this all comes together with the term commensality or the act of eating together at the same table. 

We eat cooked food and we use language to communicate. Both activities mark a distinction from other species to ours. We are defined by eating habits that come from the produce we find nearby, the tools we have to prepare it and the traditional ways of cooking that have been given to us by our culture.

Unfortunately, with the busy style of modern life, we do not seem to find time to have these commensality moments anymore. In my opinion, really a shame. There is a significant element of the social interaction that is gone missing.

My suggestion as to what we can do to counteract this lack of togetherness is to try, at least, to make a ritual out of the sit-downs. Do one’s best to gather one or two times during the week  and one time on weekends, say, for a brunch on Sundays. As a result of giving food and eating together time, we give us the chance to reconnect with one another, to become a part of the group, whichever it might be.