Food and Values - Connectedness

Note: I recently went through an exercise of identifying my highest values. This is one of a series of posts looking at how those values intersect with my relationship to food and my food choices.

It doesn’t surprise me that connectedness came out as one of my greatest values. When I think of spirituality, that’s what comes to mind – finding connection with something outside ourselves.

Sometimes that connection is to other people, which is where food definitely comes into play, especially if you consider this tidbit from the book Affluenza: “The word companion literally means ‘with bread.’” (p. 121)

This came home to me in a couple of ways yesterday. The first was when I attended one of the many Women’s Marches around the country (and world!), this particular one in Augusta, Maine. I went with three other women, and one of them brought a box from The Holy Donut to help keep us energized.

We shared the donuts before marching, which were delicious, gave us something to share in a companionable way, and they did hold us through, giving us energy to then connect with others at the event.

Immediately after that, I went to the memorial service of a woman named Cay at my church, a wonderful lady who embodied being feisty and independent but also warm and welcoming. One of the other church members shared a lovely story about how she loved Cay’s baklava, made from a recipe Cay got from her grandmother.

Cay eventually consented to share the recipe, but it couldn’t leave her house – the other woman had to go to Cay’s kitchen and copy the recipe there. That recipe now lives on even outside the family, and the woman at the memorial service brought baklava made from it to share at the reception.

Food connects us in other ways, too, reminding us that we’re all human, and regardless of how we might differ, we all need it to live.

And as many cultures and religions and have noted, sharing food with others is so important to starting to integrate and understand the other person.

For all these reasons, I am happy to celebrate food and the ways in which it connects us. May you, too, find some good connections through food.