Throughout the stages she does the housework while he sits with his feet up watching the telly. She cooks the food and puts it on a plate for him – and for anybody else that is at the table. How does she know when and how much to serve the various people? Might it not be better to do it buffet style where people fill their own plates; and where they can go back for more if they feel the need?
In my various overseas postings I employed house servants – they were my labour saving devices. I paid them well so they were not house slaves. Domestic service was seen to be a noble profession. Domestic servants were also employed for households occupied by a working spouse and a stay at home one. The concept of the ‘idle rich’ comes to mind. And ‘upstairs/ downstairs’. What does the stay at home spouse do all day?
My meditation group has a pot-luck lunch on the first Saturday of the month. Everybody brings something vegetarian – savory or sweet – home made or shop bought. The division of labour just happens. And the following jobs get done:
- Arrange the foodstuffs in the buffet area along with crockery and cutlery
- Everyone helps themselves to what they fancy
- Everyone sits with their food in front of them till we are all served.
- A Buddhist grace is said
- We eat for 20 minutes in silence
- We chat and have tea while some people gather, wash and put away the dishes.
- The buffet is tidied and wrapped so that people take home the leftovers of what they brought.
On other meditation retreats, especially those lasting more than a day, there are professional cooks. Otherwise the system is the same as outlined above except that there are official rotas which people sign up to for serving and for washing up three times per day.
To get food into their mouths many people use knives, forks, spoons and other people use chopsticks - but the natural way is to use your fingers.
The latter was common in a Zambian boarding school where I taught in the late 1970s. The dining room had tables but no chairs. Groups were assigned to particular tables. Meals consisted of maize porridge with a soup of meat or vegetables. The cooks used wheel barrows to deliver large basins to the groups. Using only their right hands (the left hand is for cleaning the bum) they made a ball with the porridge and indented it with the thumb so they could pick up the soup. When there were leftovers they were offered to the dogs and what was still left over was scavenged in the night by the Kalahari Bush people
“There’s nought so queer as folk”
That's an interesting post George. I like the idea of everyone sharing food in such a simple way. I don't think I could sit for twenty minutes without speaking though. However, never say never...
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