Finding a Place for Grace

Like Zeke Emanuel, my father started many meals with a blessing and as a family we often "benched," or sang grace after meals--rather, competed in our harmonic skills during it, putting in surprise intervals and flourishes my brother and sister picked up at various USY retreats. The sweetness of the moment was matchless.

I always welcome the chance to say grace before or after meals, and as Zeke points out in his thoughtful and moving post, that chance is far too rare in our non-family, eaten-out, often rushed meals--which is to say, most every time we dine. I'm glad he's made such an eloquent and simple argument to find a place for grace whenever we eat in company. He ends by asking who can write a simple, non-secular grace that will express the thanksgiving our everyday experience reminds us every day we need to express.

Any ideas? I welcome them, and will post them with pleasure.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2009/04/finding-a-place-for-grace/16414/