Giving Thanks for the Non-religious
I'm an atheist and my partner (Persephone) is a very spiritual type person. We still say grace at dinner time. It's different from a normal prayer because we focus on saying "thanks" to the food that we have. We've done some reading as parents and decided that being thankful for what you have keeps you from becoming indulgent and unhappy.
So what we do is, we hold hands around our oval table and each night a different person (moving clockwise) says thanks to all the food on the table - sometimes the condiments too if we're short on main dishes.
Lately we've decided to modify this a bit to say more thank yous based on the complexity of the life we are eating. If it's a vegetable we say it once:
"Thank you broccoli"
If it's fish we say it twice:
"Thank you salmon, thank you salmon"
If it's a bird we say it thrice:
"thank you chicken, thank you chicken, thank you chicken"
If it's a mammal we say it four times:
"thank you cow, thank you cow, thank you cow, thank you cow"
So far we haven't eaten any amphibians - but if we do, I'm not sure where it would fit in. Maybe two and a half times?
"Thank you frog, thank you frog, thank y ..."
So, yeah dinner time around the Dag table is a bit strange, but it works for us. Does anyone else have any interesting meal-time rituals?
So what we do is, we hold hands around our oval table and each night a different person (moving clockwise) says thanks to all the food on the table - sometimes the condiments too if we're short on main dishes.
Lately we've decided to modify this a bit to say more thank yous based on the complexity of the life we are eating. If it's a vegetable we say it once:
"Thank you broccoli"
If it's fish we say it twice:
"Thank you salmon, thank you salmon"
If it's a bird we say it thrice:
"thank you chicken, thank you chicken, thank you chicken"
If it's a mammal we say it four times:
"thank you cow, thank you cow, thank you cow, thank you cow"
So far we haven't eaten any amphibians - but if we do, I'm not sure where it would fit in. Maybe two and a half times?
"Thank you frog, thank you frog, thank y ..."
So, yeah dinner time around the Dag table is a bit strange, but it works for us. Does anyone else have any interesting meal-time rituals?
14 Comments
deathcowI like it. You and I (and she and her) are on similiar wavelengths.
If I may suggest some special exceptions:
platypus eggs: 3
platypus meat: 4
cephalopods: 4
primates: 5
cetaceans: 5
humans: 6 (and fair to recognize by name i.e. "Thank You Linda!")
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
^Ha - I might need to make a chart and hang it the dining room for reference. Also, I forgot invertebrate animals - oysters, clams, prawns etc. They should probably get 1.5 thank yous.
marinarakill the beaver and pray to the beaver god for providing you that beaver
twiddlesThank you salt for all the high blood pressure you've given me!
Thank you sugar for the diabetes I'm sure to develop!
Thank you cholesterol for the heart disease!
MrConradsIts like saying a hail mary, only atheist style...well not really probably
Thats great though, if it works for you then go with it! I should give it a try because my current dinner time ritual is usually just me salivating at the ding of the microwave. PAVLOV LIVES!
rottenseedI put Tapatío on everything I eat. It's like some weird OCD thing I've got. I would have to say that the complexity of Tapatío is very high therefore if I were to adopt your method I would have to say "Thank you Tapatio" about 25 times.
Farhad2000We constantly just bitch about how expensive food is now. How imported products taste like shit. How hard it's to get a decent cut of meat that hasn't been shipped frozen. How much fruits and vegetables seemingly get bigger and bigger year on year, yesterday we saw a cucumber that could really be used a improvised club. So on and so on.
rottenseed^solution: Tapatío
swampgirlHilarious, Dag
Whats the procedure for leftovers?
I am religiously undecided on the issue. It's a nice sentiment to give thanks, but if there is a God out there I'm thinking he's not hanging out to see if he gets credit for my roast chicken.
We do not say grace except when my husband has been stoking himself up on the history channel all day while I cook. Oh and holidays of course.
My kids eating their dinner without complaint and washing their dish afterwards is plenty thanks enough for me.
OctopussyIt's interesting, but why the hierarchy? No criticism, just wondering. And aren't you afraid it's going to turn your kids into vegetarians? I mean, by the third "thank you" you're really rubbing it in that it is a dead cow they're eating.
ThylanI've been thinking on this, and I think what i like most, is that this is a compromise that not only suits your family well, but seems too meet everyeons positions with respect.
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
SG - it's not really that we feel that we have to thank a deity or a dead animal - it's more to do with the act of being thankful and noticing - appreciative for what we have.
Octo- the hierarchy was my 10yo daughter's idea - though originally it was just twice for an animal- I expanded the rules. I was thinking about my old biology class and learning how the more complex an animal is, the more heart chambers it has.
I mean no disrespect to broccoli.
But an animal that gave its life for us to eat is more deserving of thanks in my book.
12480THANK YOU GREAT SPIRIT...
lauraDon's edit:
We sit around the table, eat, and while eating everyone is usually very quiet, until one of us expresses some insight or occurance which has happened at some time during the day. This invariably triggers a response from another person at the table identifying with the situation. This person describes the situation and the impacts and results to everyone else at the table which invaribaly triggers a response from someone else at the table to comment or to share like experiences. Our shared suppers together result in not only an incredibly pleasureable experience of the devine gourmet skills of Laura, but expansions of understanding about living in this moment in time. This is all accomplished w/o ceremony or structure, but as a natural flowing of family love...then everyone sings their praises to the chef because she is such a great and awesome deliverer of said eats for which they were not worthy (note, the last part of this sentence was sneaked in by laura).
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