PrintAugust 1, 2010
The Chicken Soup Solution
"As a child, our family menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it." - Buddy HackettThere are four clear threats to the modern family, and possibly civilization at large: cell phones, the iPod, the internet, and junk food. We allow the first three because they are cheaper than tutors, babysitters, and nannies. Indeed, those gadgets support a kind of electronic autism, where neither parent nor child speaks to the other. With junk food, the threat is more complicated -- a fusion of chemistry and culture. In combination, semi-social gadgetry and poor diets seem to be conspiring to produce a generation of chubby mutes with attention deficit disorders. Culture begins and ends on a plate. We eat to live, and then we live to eat. From the earliest times, food has played a key role in the growth of families and a larger society. An infant bonds with its mother while nursing; families bond when they share food. We define hospitality with friends by inviting them to...(Read Full Article)
