Let's do lunch

I’ve posted only a handful of times, and yet I’ve brought up lunch twice. I think this hearkens to my love of my two favorite things: food and conversation. I love eating. I love talking. And yes, I’ll talk with food in my mouth.

But today I’m going to scratch a little deeper on the importance of meals while working. I’ve realized that one of the greatest parts of teaching was lunch with my colleagues. It’s near the top of what I miss. [note: this says nothing of the people with whom I presently eat lunch – very wonderful lunches and conversations I assure you.]

But what I miss is the tremendous variety and passion we brought from our respective areas of expertise and interest. On any given day around the table in our staff lounge we might talk literature, anthropology, politics, history, science, current affairs, NCAA basketball picks, or any myriad of topics. The conversations were loud, well-informed, bawdy, and generally delicious. I think we would be hard pressed to match the quality of debate and insight in any other setting.

I led of focus group of teachers a week ago and one teacher said he and the rest of the math department have eaten lunch everyday together for the past 10 years. He cited this as one of the primary reasons he has been able to sustain himself in his career.

Another teacher in the same group said that she never eats with her colleagues and that for the most part they don’t share any brand of relationship. You could almost sense her longing to share in the same type of collegiality shared by the math department.

So there you have it. Posting #2 about lunch. Perhaps it’s not as random or unimportant as we might think. If you don’t already eat lunch with your colleagues, give it a shot. It might be the very thing you’re looking for. If you already do, turn the volume up to 11 and enjoy.