Feeding time at the organist zoo

We human beings love to eat. Look at how we turn eating into a social event, not just a survival instinct. We gather at major holidays to feast. (Even our major church liturgies are called “feasts.”) We eat cake at birthdays. Church members provide a meal to the family of the deceased after the funeral. And the ultimate eating for Christians is communion. It’s a celebratory meal, taken quite directly from Jewish custom. And Christians have an easy out: they eat in church because Jesus TOLD them to!

And I’m no different. I learned from church how to eat as a celebration, not just as something to quiet down a grumbling stomach. Ever since childhood, I can remember a meal being added on to a gathering. We would go eat Sunday lunch at Redman’s Cafe (oh my, the mashed potatoes and gravy). And we would go eat Sunday supper at the Hungry Bull family steakhouse after Sunday evening church (Baptists do evening church, you know). And we would make our reservations for Wednesday evening supper at the church. The church’s Homecoming celebration always included a huge potluck. Sunday School classes got together over potluck or a restaurant.

I carried the torch into grad school. Choir members and I would eat after Thursday rehearsal and Sunday church. We would gather every year over Mexican food for the boss’s birthday (we still do, actually, lo these 19 years after his death!).

I could go on and on. Couldn’t you?

Today, my regimen still includes lots of social eating. After Monday evening Appalachian Chorale rehearsals, a few of us go to Chili’s for what one student now calls “dinner with the family.” And after EVERY performance where I or any of my students is on stage, we go eat. It’s now a habit, one that no one dares think about changing.

A few weeks ago, after my recital at Bethel Lutheran in Rochester, Minn., it was off to Beetles bar & grill. Yesterday, after my recital at Lenoir-Rhyne University, it was off to da Vinci’s in Hickory. Tonight, after Appalachian Chorale rehearsal, it will be to Chili’s for “family dinner.” And so it goes.

You’re probably hungry now. Call me, and we’ll go eat!