I agree with much of what you say and see it lived in my household. We sit down together to eat homecooked meals all the time. It is our way of life. I, too, shop at a local organic farm for my produce. We go out for various lessons a couple of nights per week so I batch my cooking and we eat our main meal midday those days. Still, the children eat together with at least one parent for every meal, every day. And, cooking is a lot less expensive, tastier, and healthier than manufactured (restaurant or processed) food. It also grows the family as the cook teaches the children how to cook and bake.

The impact on our lives as Christians is vast. For example. Lent and Avent are times of preparation. That resonates naturally in my household. I am not sure that those living in fast food/prepared food/meals scattered households understand the need for preparation as well. There is so much more I could say but, my toddler needs to nurse.

Wonderful comments, keep it up folks!

Erik -- You know that I come from a family of sharecroppers and farmers, and I'm not going to say that I've worked harder coding HTML than they did. I made the most money at a job where I didn't work very hard, but the company was willing to pay for my skills. I do feel guilty sometimes that I made that much money when my dad had to work two part-time jobs to afford to be a schoolteacher when he first started. He also didn't really get a summer vacation because he always worked hard hours at my uncle's plum orchard. I agree that rural and industrial work differ.

Erik, you mentioned eating foods in season--the best banana I've ever had was at a roadside stand in Thailand. The taste was out of this world. But what do you expect--our bananas we get here in the US are picked a month before they're ripe and then sit in a crate until we get them.

Ann--I think the reason people put up with 3-hour commutes is because the motivation for work in our society has changed. These days we're constantly being told that our jobs are who we are--that what we decide to do for a living is one of the most important decisions we can make. But is it for all of us? I'm not sure. I've spent the past 34 years trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, and I just don't know. I'd much rather have a shorter commute, a shorter working day, and 30+ days off a year. (Italy, here I come!) But my wife loves her job (if not her boss), and puts up with the 90-minute commute because her job is important to her. I'm not about to tell her to give that up and work at a coffee shop for $7 an hour. Instead, we may have to sell the house and move closer to the city.

E-I don't know if you want to argue that technology is bad per se, or that or it has some bad consequences.

I end may up sounding a little pedantic here, but the idea of a kid as something to treasure, rather than as another pair of working hands for the farm or home, is one that existed for perhaps a generation or two and has already disappeared.

We are so craven, so FALLEN, that we don't want to have kids, and raise them ourselves, because there are no economic advantages to having children today (the increase in the child tax credit notwithstanding).

I believe your point about family meals is well-taken, though how the meal is prepared is perhaps a secondary issue. God isn't really judging you on whether your pork is brined or not-LOL.

Jenny,

I am glad that you brought up the issue of stewardship of the land. I did not even begin to get into environmental issues (nor animal issues - it's gotta be bad if I think the animals are mistreated, seeing as how I relish every minute I can at the bullring and have been known to enjoy cockfights as well). Of course around here the big issue is not so much pesticides, but irrigation (issues of when and where that baffle even native Californians).

We have gone almost totally organic and seasonal. By being strictly seasonal we actually don't spend much more money, and our food is always picked at the peak of ripeness. Furthermore, our grocery money goes directly to family farmers or small independent grocers. I have three farmers I am loyal to and they have never let me down (I probably get 70% of my weekly vegetables from them). I highly recommend eating this way. Cooking is never a chore, meals satisfy and I know three families that benefit directly from just about every dollar I spend on my produce.

Also, congratulations on your journey to the Church (whether Constantinopolitan or Roman). Of course I recommend the Roman Church, but that is because I am a bit of a Latinate bigot. For more balanced views of the world, be sure to read Steven Riddle's excellent blog.

Ann,

No, my thinking has been going this way for awhile (particularly in light of recent discussions on Two Sleepy Mommies and El Camino Real). The only reason I did not feel too guilty about it was how good the Willow Street Schoolhouse is, and how close it was to the office, so I could pop by for lunch. It is certainly the reason that I decided not to look for another full time office job (instead I am finding that I have two full-time jobs with funny hours).

As for the parents and grandparents work hours, I know that my grandfather as a union iron worker worked less hours than I did at Arhoolie. My other grandfather put in long hours, but once you discount the time socializing, at ballgames, at the bar, etc., I don't think it was that long of hours(either as a ballplayer, a bootlegger or a printer). My father worked hard, but always managed to take a month off for vacation, as well as shorter trips. I don't think that the situation was different for most industrial/light industrial folks. Rural life, well, that is a different story.

Jim,

I have had the same experience you describe, but also have a couple of markets where I am stunned by the knowledge of the clerks. One actually had the codes for Cardoni, lacinato kale, and some obscure wild mushroom that I cannot remember the name of all in his head. I was amazed.

Good stuff, Erik. I'm amazed by the 30 varieties of Krispy Kreme, the 97 flavors of TV dinners, and the 698 different breakfast cereals in our little Publix. And then the cashier will hold up an eggplant and say "What's this?" (Sadly, this has happened twice!)

Are you also criticizing two-income families because your situation recently changed? Or did you think that you committing a sin and destroying your family just last week?

I also agree with John that our parents and grandparents worked much harder than we did. They worked that hard because they had to to survive; we put in those kinds of hours working and commuting to avoid our families. People think of families as a forced societal responsibility instead of the blessing it is. They drive a 3-hour-per-day commute rather than spending it with their families because they want time alone. It is a choice. You can always take a lesser-paid job closer to home, but it depends on one's priorities.

Dear Erik,

I agree wholeheartedly with what you have written on the subject of food. What we eat and how much we eat is indeed a moral issue. Gluttony and poor stewardship of God's resources are both sins to be avoided. As you stated below in your answers to Alicia, even eating processed food is a form of gluttony. And the practice of factory farming is an example of poor stewardship.

I'm just learning about the sacramental nature of the family meal. It was never stressed to me as a Protestant. Although I am still technically Presbyterian and currently trying to decide whether to become Catholic or Orthodox, I have embraced the incarnational faith of the Catholics and Orthodox. It has changed the way I look at food.

I grew up in a household with a feminist mother who almost never cooked, and when she did, it was out of a can. My family hardly ever sat down to a meal together. My husband and I are just now learning how to cook using healthy, fresh ingredients. If we are blessed to ever have children, we don't want them to grow up in a fast-food household.

The fast food culture that Americans live in is antithetical to the Christian culture. Unfortunately, it's a subject that very few Christians think about.

Thank you for posting so eloquently on this subject!

In Christ,

Jenny

John,

You are right that we have certainly reduced the hazards of work (as the decendent of marble cutters and coal miners I know well how dangerous this work was), but as to the hours, I am not so sure. I see people in both the white and blue collar sectors working tremendously long hours, often in order to afford a house of the similar level that their grandparents could afford. For instance, my granparents' house was affordable to an iron worker. Now, it takes two incomes (and often professionals) to live there (part of the problem is that the area has been invaded by homosexuals who, with their double incomes and no familiar obligations, needlessly drive up housing costs). When you count in the long commute hours that suburbanites have, they rarely have any time with their families.

As far as things like blogging being the fruit of our time-saving technologies, I would rather have us produce buildings like the Chartres cathedral, ceilings like Michaelangelo's, or fountains like the Trevi over a thousand well written blogs.

Please note that in all of this I do not exempt myself from among the guilty. Just yesterday I bought buckwheat crepe mix, rather than making them from scratch. And the night before that I stopped at the Scottish Restaurant on the way home from Redding. Converting our culture is going to be a long, difficult and sometimes painful process.

"great granfathers"...

I agree with much of what you've written here, but you do need to keep some historical perspective-our grandfathers and great-fathers worked much longer hours than we do, in difficult, dangerous physical labor in mines and factories and on farms. The "fruits of that technological prowess" is (are) that you have the leisure time to write this blog.