Bon appétit!
LET’S TALK By Suzanne Pollak
TH A NKSGI V ING DINNER GETS A DO-OV ER In November, the big white elephant—oops, I mean turkey— stands in the middle of the month representing feast and family with a meal often fraught with fissures, fatigue, and frustrations. And no wonder! We read advice everywhere about everything: fourweeks-ahead lists, “Thirty Ways to Cook a Turkey,” how to carve (well, at least that’s useful) . . . 116 | NO V E MBE R 2019
Have you noticed how in all the blather, nothing is new, noteworthy, or life changing— it’s all copycat material? Enough with unreal expectations and instructions about one day and one big bird! Thanksgiving is just one meal in a thirty-day month! Let’s consider November from a different angle; instead of announcing trifle piffle (thanks) at the Thanksgiving table, let’s be thankful for what is happening every single day. It’s time to elevate the ordinariness of the daily dinner. My experience from marriage and mothering, from listening to Charleston Academy students, and from accepting invitations to other people’s houses, is this: If you never use your dining room or you do so infrequently or only on big occasions, and if your family only grazes according to their individual schedules with eyes attached to a screen and not on each other, then you will be sorely disappointed. This goes not only for Thanksgiving but also for decades later. The nightly meal is a small but mighty vehicle of opportunity. Your table can be jam-packed with inspired learning—a classroom for watching and doing—and realizing what to be thankful for: manners, nutrition, and bonds, among other things. Eat enough dinners at the table, and you and yours will become aces at many social skills.
