Grace Before Meals
We are a very small family of 2 children, wife and myself. One son is 14 and the other is 4. Since some time last year we made a practice to pray before meals that we have together. However, on weekdays the only meal we partake together is dinner. Even breakfast is consumed individually. Furthermore, only the elder boy,my wife and I have meals together as the younger one has a different schedule to stick to.
We take turns to say grace, each day. Our routine is to thank God for the meal we are having as well all the meals throughout the day and thanking Him for blessing those who prepared all the meals we had at home and elsewhere. We also thank God for blessing all those who provide food to the hungry all over the world.
Two nights ago, as it was my son’s turn to say grace, he added another blessing. He asked God to bless all those who were involved in preparing our meals of the day, i.e., people higher up the supply chain. This was a profound moment for me as I have never considered to pray for these people, be they farmers, fishermen, baker, spice merchant, etc. Thinking of all these people who were responsible for satiating my hunger, I began to wonder, why we modern humans are so obsessed on projecting our independence.
Can members of modern society be really independent? It could have been relatively easy when individuals were self-sufficient farmers. Even in such instances, such farmers needed implements created and built by others. Come to think about it, our ancestors who were hunter-gatherers were successful only when they hunted together and not independently. In fact an independent human sounds like an oxymoron. Humans are gregarious creatures and not meant to be individualists.
I think this whole independence or individualism movement indicates a pathology in society. It’s a denial of who we are as humans, similar to the secularists denial of the need for religion and God. The only way out of this is to accept the fact that we can never be truly devoid of the need for other people and of God. I suppose society will have to learn the folly of such thinking and will return to its roots, eventually.
