Editorial

Mealtime talk rather than phones

Pope Francis has a point in urging people to talk to each other at mealtimes instead of using their mobile phones as he cited “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as an example for families to follow.”

In his weekly Angelus address last December 29 at the St. Peter’s Square in Vatican, the Pope said: “They prayed, worked, and communicated with each other.” 

He continued, saying: "I ask myself if you, in your family, know how to communicate or are you like those kids at meal tables where everyone is chatting on their mobile phone ... where there is silence like at a Mass but they don't communicate." 

His point is getting back to communicating in the families, stressing: "Fathers, parents, children, grandparents, brothers and sisters, this is a task to undertake today…”

Recalling those days sans communication gadgets like today’s cell phones, family members chat with each other during mealtimes, a communication that is face-to-face, personal, and intimate where members truly exchange dialogically. These were also moments when family members share pleasantries or talked about the business within the circle.

In today’s modern communication technology when we can reach each other afar, we find ourselves chatting to many personalities simultaneously through the phones forgetting that someone is beside us in the first place and is being discarded because of someone else over the phone but physically absent. This is personally disgusting when facing each other but our peer is talking someone else over the cellphone. There should be an evolved etiquette in cellphone sub-culture so as not to suspend or distract face-to-face communication and isolate the other because of chatting somebody else over the phone.

  Come to think of it, it is during mealtime that family members get together and this is the moment that we have to savor and appreciate food servings and talk to each other… because after meal, we go to our own other businesses. More so, meal conversation can be an avenue by which minute problems can be shared and given attention for resolution. Remember, the family is the first and last bastion of our source of security… and so put off the cell or mobile phones when dining together, either with families or relatives as well as friends.

To the very young ones, mobile phones are bought by your parents for your communication needs but put this off when in front of meals and converse with your parents and blood lines than the mindsets focused on other people kilometers away from the dining table. There are lots of time for mobile phone chats other than during mealtimes with the family. Dialoging with each other during mealtime is respecting each other’s presence… The person in front of you and beside you has feelings and emotions and so pay attention to their physical and social presence so you can also be given that importance.

Put value in talking with each other during mealtime and your relationship is better cherished. Just a reminder, folks.