The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction

by Justin Whitmel Earley

Think through all the ways the values of love are communicated over food. We serve each other. We clean up after each other. We take turns. We share. We fight and forgive. We praise and compliment. We express gratitude. We tell stories and ask questions. We listen. We hear each other pray. If our household routine is too busy to allow meals that unfold with family members, roommates, or neighbors, we should at least admit that the school of our household is not actually a school of love but rather a school of busyness. That house is a place where we teach each other how to do too much and be stressed about it. Or if the kitchen is way too messy to produce food, and the table is way too cluttered to sit and eat at, it’s unsurprising that we end up being formed in loneliness, eating by the TV or the computer. The norms of our table signal the norms of our community.

Our priorities are communicated by the tables we eat at