My Favorite Meal (repost from 2012)
I love thanksgiving. Hands down it’s my favorite day of the year. Mostly I love the idea of a feast. Not the glutinous feast of old world kings overeating turkey legs and goblets of wine while peasants outside starve; but the idea of eating a well prepared meal with loved ones. I have had the privilege of traveling to Haiti a few times to spend time and work in an orphanage there. Each time we commemorated the end of the stay with a feast. We bought the orphanage chickens, a goat, vegies, rice, beans and a cake. Then together, Americans and Haitian feasted, (well, we served and the Haitians ate). Watching those kids enjoy a meal they rarely get was a high point in my life.
Someone once asked me what my favorite meal was. A meal that was better than any other I’d had. I was sitting in The Tribeca Grill in New York with a co-worker when he asked me. I didn’t have much of a reply back then. I remember naming a couple of my favorite foods but I didn’t have a significant meal, a time and place that I could recall. But looking back, if my long lost friend asked me that question today, I would have an answer.
A few years ago, recession in full swing, I found myself in a new sales job and completely broke. I woke up one morning and I knew what I had to do. I looked through the folder of unopened mail and bills and found my IRA statement. I had already depleted it of almost everything and now I had $3000 left in it. My mom had told me to not pull anymore out. That she and my dad would loan me some money. But I didn’t want to borrow any more money, (at least more than I already had). So I pulled out the statement, checked to make sure the customer service phone was on there and stuffed it in my pocket. I was 28 days past due on my car payment, a month past due on my cell phone.... and the calls were starting to come in. I had just enough to get me through December until some deals closed in January and those commission checks came in.
That morning I dropped off my daughter about 15 minutes late to her preschool. As I slipped back through the gate, towards the parking lot, I passed the director’s office. Her door was open and I as I walked by I heard her exclaim, “Oh , wait…!” I stopped and my heart stopped; I was filled with shame. It was December 14th which meant I was now 14 days late paying my daughter’s tuition. We were sending my daughter to a Lutheran preschool and she loved it. Despite our money problems I didn’t want to pull her out. I gathered myself and popped my head in to say hi, to quickly explain that I would be dropping off a check soon. But I didn’t get a chance to talk first. She had me come in and she said, “I have something for your family. Do you have time to take it now?” I was surprised and told her I did.
She smiled and said “I will be right back”. I waited a few minutes and then she came back and asked me where I parked. I walked out to my car and when I saw her again, she was rolling a cart filled with boxes. The top box said “Family #7” on it in black marker. “This one’s heavy” she said and I as picked it up and I looked inside to see it filled with food. Stuffing, pancake mix, soup, cake mix, rice, a whole frozen chicken….I couldn’t believe it. I gratefully put the box of food in my car. When you’re broke, the gift of food is tremendous. Because it’s the one thing you have to buy. You can put off your kid's pre-school tuition, the HOA bill, the mortgage, the cell phone, the car payment…you learn to hold off collection calls and to stall the monthly bills. But food – hunger, is not something you can put off till next paycheck. So when someone buys you food it opens up the ability to pay other bills you’d normally skip.
That Christmas day, I made a feast. While my kids napped after Christmas morning, I cooked. I roasted the chicken, made the stuffing, the green bean casserole, the potatoes and I even baked the cake. We opened a bottle of wine someone gave us. And there, my wife and kids and my wife’s sister had a feast; a well prepared meal with loved ones. And looking back, that meal was hands down my favorite meal I have ever had.
That time in my life changed me. It’s the reason I’ve gone to Haiti to help the kids there. I learned what it was like to need, to want, and to receive help. A few years later now, our family is recovering. Even though we don’t have any kids in that pre-school, we’ve made it a tradition to drop off food there. In fact, I dropped off two grocery bags to them this week in hopes another family can enjoy for Thanksgiving. I love this day, I love that we can celebrate with a meal, with a prayer and with family; that despite what’s on the table, we can feast.
dc
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