May it seems strange to say that to move forward we often need to go backwards. Sometimes it's the hard truth. Cooking meals at home seems to be a little lost art in America today. The return of the practice could be something that could help rejuvenate and revitalize a part of the quality of life as we know.
Many key elements that makes us strong as Americans were lost. The largest of these key elements is, in my opinion, the family structure. The idea of father as head of the family, the mother in favour of the father and children subject to the parents, somewhere along the way these ideas have taken a wrong turn. In our effort to be independent of our own, we have done damage to the family, causing the gap between parents and children to broaden and fall in this wider crack is the communication that is required to weld a family together.
Count me an idiot, call me crazy, shake his finger at me and tell me how stupid I am. But I think one of the main reasons for many of the problems facing American families today is because we no longer sit around a table in the evening for a family meal. We no longer have that time where we speak, listen and yes, sometimes even to discuss things in our lives that are important.
The reason why we no longer do so because we ourselves convenienced by the habit of cooking. Fast Food has become too easy, too abundant. It has deprived us of one of the basic elements of the family, solidarity. To be a real family members must participate in a sort of congealing element or practice. They need something that draws at the same time ... something that allows interaction necessary for healthy relationships within the family.
There are other reasons, of course, by the decline of family structure. Several of them can be linked in one way or another, very directly from the absence of the collection of the family for the evening meal. For whatever reason, no one can refute the fact that the family is in decline. Our lifestyles and fast-paced techno society does not seem to have time for the family. A simple task, the task of the family shares in the preparation of a meal, seems so small. How many problems could be solved, how many families can be brought back from the brink of disintegration with a simple old group of Family Medicine cooking a meal at home?
Those who were products of 40 years and 50 years, 60 maybe even in the early 70 can probably remember the times when the family came together at the table to discuss their problems, talking about how their day. Of course, each family did Ozzie and Harriet mystique. My own family has been semi-dysfunctional, but we still had the time, we gathered around the table. These days meals were good and happy things were bantered back and forth as we all shared in the family.
Sometimes, things are not all sunshine and roses, and cross words could be heard. We continue to have received only the evening meal, and be a part of the family, good or bad. We knew who we were, we knew each other. We knew our limitations and our borders. Generally, they are clearly limits were tested and retested as defined by the social structure of the family.
In America today, life seems increasingly complex. Every time we turn on the news there is something else the mainstream media has sensationalized in an immense fear of adding one more worry, plus a negative aspect of life to be ever vigilant. We strive to maintain our focus on the things that matter in our lives. But do we really focus on good things, things that will actually protect us, we keep fear and keep us healthy?
Thus, much of the time we spend in one day is spent in vain thought to things that cause unnecessary nothing but worry. The things that really matter in our lives are put aside, making them second thoughts for the things we said that we should be afraid of. We should fear the threat of terrorism. We should fear the threat of disease. We need to worry about the declining supply of fuel. We need to fear that health might not be good enough or that we must take a new drug to prevent us from depression.
We worry about problems artificially concocted, and ignore the simple things of the family who could make us whole again. We must be together and not only as individuals but as members of a family strong bilge and a base from which to emerge in an uncertain world. If we can somehow learn the importance of the family, as we do take these measures we can be safe on the fact that there is structure behind us ... a structure that will be used to build.
It is a fact that Americans are living longer today than they did a 100 years ago, but at what price? What we have to give, what do we sacrifice to get these few years, and the biggest question of all, he been helpful?
The group of people that I mentioned earlier, those who grew in 40 years, 50 years, and 60's and early 70's, I feel have the best perspective on how things have changed. And I do not know for certain, but I would be willing to bet that you will not find many who would say life is better today than it was then. In fact, I would be ready to go so far as to say that most would say that the quality of life is now lower than it was when we were children or young adults.
Life is too complicated, too technical, too fast and sometimes too. Someone told me once that you can not stop the wheels of progress or the machine built by it hangs down around us. May this be true, and certainly stop the progress is not what I propose. Rather I propose to try to reintroduce the idea of family meal in our lifestyle.
To do so pick a day ... one day per week ... if one day a week is too much, then start by one day per month. Encouraging family members to participate in the planning and pre-paration for the idea of family unity. I am sure that setting the world for a few hours for something as exotic as cooking a meal for family seem a bit awkward at first.
However, I also believe that we can reintroduce this part, the family meals, back in our lives, we will get a glimpse of life that has become so obscured almost lost.
I think we all have an idea of how we want our family life could be, how it should be, how it could have been. I also know that today there are so many families that have fallen into the trap no time. There is no time to cook, no time to talk, not the time to share thoughts and feelings. It is off the sport, off the office, school, off what is to many other activities that deprive us of a real family. Do not let the "trap no time" you take the most valuable asset you have your family .... Finding time for family meals, and better yet, take time. Remember, having a meal with family is much more than just having something to eat.
Scott Best is a freelance writer in association with 100 recipes
More than Scott's free writings on various topics can be found at Scott under Article Blog
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Best
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