October 2008

by Pastor Dan Miller

^{Editor’s Note: This article was reprinted with permission from Dan Miller’s book Spiritual Reflections.}

It might seem that filling your own stomach with food is about as self-oriented an act as one could perform. On the other hand, few things could be more boring than watching someone else eat. It would seem to follow, then, that eating would be a private affair. But ironically eating is an inherently social activity that invites communication.

When eating, people do not typically concentrate much attention on their food (unless perhaps that food contains inordinate levels of sugar). We do not obsess with the process of satiating our hunger (unless perhaps a meal or more has been skipped). We are wired to think less about the food in our mouths and more about the persons sharing the meal with us.

This is not learned behavior. We do not view eating as a relational activity only after years of habituation mute the novelty of eating and render the act second nature (like driving a car). Just watch a table full of children eat together sometime. The food itself is the last thing on those young minds, which is one reason so much of it ends up in places other than the mouth!

The only time children actually discuss eating while eating is when something illegal is being done with their food. And on such occasions, communication is the inevitable outcome anyway, if not the primary goal from the outset. “Watch this, guys. I can fit four peas up my nose!” “Look what happens when I smash this grape under my glass.” “Hey, that’s my cookie. Give it back.” The conversation may range back and forth across a thousand topics but will rarely if ever touch on the topic of eating.
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