The Table is the Place of Intimacy
The
table is the place of intimacy. Around the table we discover each
other. It’s the place where we pray. It’s the place where we ask: “How
was your day?” It’s the place where we eat and drink together and say:
“Come on, take some more!” It is the place of old and new stories. It is
the place of smiles and tears. The table, too, is the place where
distance is most painfully felt. It is the place where the children feel
the tension between the parents, where brothers and sisters express
their anger and jealousies, where accusations are made, and where plates
and cups become instruments of violence. Around the table, we know
whether there is friendship and community or hatred and division.
Precisely because the table is the place of intimacy for all the members
of the household, it is also the place where the absence of that
intimacy is most painfully revealed.
Henri Nouwen
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