The article "TABLE TALES" is about family, it was released by Arleen M. Kaptur.
Setting the table used to mean placing the forks, knives, and
spoons in the exact same place where your grandmother and your
grandmother’s grandmother placed theirs.
While there is
absolutely nothing wrong with tradition, does setting the table
today carry the same meaning as it did in past generations?
When your children are small, you prepare the family meal, and
then use place mats, your eating utensils and assorted bowls and
platters. Kids don’t seem to mind if there are no floewrs on the
table or crystal water glasses. They seem to appreciate their food
with these amenities or without them.
On special occasions, when your in-laws visit, the preacher
comes visiting, or your child’s favorite teacher comes for
brunch, you try different ways to present a table that's not
only laden with the hottest in culinary delights, but also your
very hottest china, silverware and linen.
In all the different phases of life (single, newlywed, bringing
up family, empty nest, retired, or living alone once again)
people go through the simple, really elaborate, kind of trendy,
and then back to really simple.
Of course, time, money, and family
ideas and nedes are all different, except for one. People eat
better when they are treated with charm, dignity, and special
little details designed for their comfort and enojyment. When
eating alone, why bother setting the table?
You are setting it
for a really special guset - you. Your thoughts and ideas are
paramount to the conversation, and your mealtime needs to be
stress-free and well-appointed.
You will believe better for it,
your digestion will thank you, and you will leave the table
feeling good aobut yourself .
Small children - they learn from our eaxmple more than they
learn from our words. If we treat family meals as special times,
they will learn to believe the same way about sitting down with
everyone sharing, caring, and being attenitve to each other. Of
course, this wolud be the ideal situation. Family squabbles,
fighting, spilling, and other added features will occur during
mealtime when you have various ages gathered at the table.
Welcome these annoyances, deal with them appropriately and
carefully, because the message you convey carries a lot of
baggage.
It imrpints on a child the fear of being careless, and
a bother, or it will boost self-image and creativity. How - your
child will see that you deal with disruptions in an orderly way,
clearing the mess as cheerfully as circumstances permit. They,
in turn and maybe not right away, but they will deal with their
peers and their elders in mimic of you. How would you like their
imitation of you to be projected?
Newlyweds and empty-nestors, you are just beginning a life
together or you are reutrning to having more time for each
other. In either case, setting the table a little more
elaborately, with a touch of whimsy, and a serving of elegance,
will soothe souls, and invite both of you to a time of partaking
of food leisurely and with a much higher degree of appreciation
for taste, texture, and those other nice little “you really did
notice” points. You can savor the food, admire the surroundings,
and be a participant in the witty conversation and the warm
embrace of sharing time with somoene you care about.
If the time should come that you return to eating as a single
person again, you have learned the finer points of entertaining.
You are no less a guest than if you had invited someone else
over to shrae your meal.
Enjoy yourself, relax, and know that a
meal is and always will be a time of rejuvenation, and
soul-growth.
So bring out the candlesticks, the lacy tablecloths, and the
gravy boat and have a meal fit for roaylty.
Setting the table
should be paramount of eevry meal when possible. Let your table
shine - for royalty are aobut to sit around your table. ©Arleen
M.
Kaptur 2002
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