What are you serving at your table? .. or I'm tired of drama

Our little family has started a new dinner tradition.  We were finding that our dinner discussions needed a little help.  I mean really, there's only so many ways you can talk about school, work, and cleaning.  In an effort to expand our discussion topics, and thus save us all from extreme boredom, I picked up one little book of conversation starters.  We each picked a question and took turns answering the question--which often led to even deeper conversations.  We have sucked all of Keagan's friends who randomly join us for dinner into this "dinner game."  My theory is that if you want to eat my food, you must participate in the conversation.  And, for the most part, they willingly do so.

Anyway, we had the following question the other night:  "If you had to pick one meal to eat every night for an entire year, what would it be and why?"  Ok, I need to stop you here and tell you why this question was like throwing cold water in our face.  You see, we are a family of foodies.  I mean, we love food.  And, we love a variety of food.  In fact, I think variety in our family meal is like one of our biggest family values.  So, you see, the prospect of eating the same thing, every night, for an ENTIRE year sent cold shivers up and down our spines.

Ok, I'm going to make a comparative jump here, so stay with me.  Just like we need and desire variety in our diets, we desire and need emotional variety in our lives.  For example, let's take the issue of drama.  Regardless of whether we like drama  or not, it has a place in our lives.  But, for some people, that's all they serve at their table, so to speak.  You see, drama, like sugar, can sometimes bring an adrenaline rush.  It can get your heart pumping.  But the problem with sugar and drama is that the rush leaves as quickly as it comes.  And, like sugar, drama isn't really nutritionally sound.  It doesn't nourish you long term. That sugar rush you first experience then leaves you more drained, more undernourished than you were when you started.  To borrow a term often used for food, drama is like empty calories. When your diet is made up entirely of drama, you use up all of your allotted calories on something that didn't provide the nourishment you needed in order to complete the work you need to do (live life).  Drama doesn't leave room for things that your well being needs to be healthy and balanced, like peace, love, and joy.

Drama can be addicting.  People get addicted to that rush and the attention that it brings to them.  In fact, I would even go so far as to say that there are those who, when faced with a drama-free dinner, can't cope with it, because it's not their normal type of meal.  So they go out and find the ingredients to mix up a little plate of drama in order to feel comfortable at the dinner table. But you see, the problem with a diet of just drama is that people get sick of eating it, day after day, night after night.  Others long for variety.  If all you serve at your table is drama, then you are soon going to have a table of just one.

It's hard to not get sucked into a diet filled with drama.  I mean, it's all around us.  In the news, we hear, and are often drawn to the dramatic stories we see.  We are encouraged to view a diet of all drama as "normal" -- just look at all of the "reality" shows on T.V.  They contain bucketfuls of drama.  And we eat it up.  And then wonder why we are feeling hungry and empty an hour later.

There is a space for drama.  It is a naturally occurring element of our lives.  But it's just one piece of our emotional food pyramid.  In order to be healthy, we need to manage the amount of drama we serve and ingest.  And balance it out with other things like calm, peace, love, joy etc… Personally, I prefer my drama to take place in movies and in books ;)

So, I'll leave you with another place where I appreciate drama-- and that's in nature.  I'll leave you with a couple of photos of some brown bears enjoying a good meal.  I'm sure that this was a day full of drama for the salmon.   Have a good day!