The Power Of A Dinner Table

I am looking for good news these days. Of course we need look no further than the dinner table of our own homes, the small gestures of goodness among our children and grandchildren, from a spouse or friend, within our churches or places of work. David Brooks tells one such story last week that is truly good news. He portrays a couple, Kathy and David, who decided to open their family dinner table on Thursday evenings to kids in the neighborhood who often come hungry, who come longing for human warmth, who come because the sacred family dinner table is missing in their lives. It is the story of how one couple is reversing the ugly trends of too much loneliness, isolation, abuse, loss of family. These kids “turn toward one another’s love like plants toward the sun and burst with big glowing personalities.” “The problems facing this country,” Brooks says, “are deeper than the labor participation rate and ISIS. It’s a crisis of solidarity, a crisis of segmentation, spiritual degradation and intimacy.” This is a story of addressing these issues by restoring, in one home, one neighborhood, the family dinner table. Now that’s good news. Read this remarkable story here.