I smiled out loud when I saw the post about a new study that proclaims it’s never been more im-portant for families – even whole communities – to break bread together. Foster communication and share happiness by sharing food!
I make the point every year around the year-end Holidays… It’s not so much what’s on the festive feast table at Christmas, Ramadan or Lunar New Year’s… It’s who’s there to share it that counts!
But now, a new survey of family and community dining habits across geographical regions, cultures and cuisines has revealed that those of us who share meals with other are happier, feel more socially connected, and report a higher level of ‘life satisfaction’ in general than those who customarily or dine alone.
Pretty comprehensive
The 2025 annual World Happiness Report (WHR) looked at, “novel data for 142 countries and terri-tories collected by Gallup in 2022 and 2023,” the latest years for which full-year data were available.
As in the past, the report shows that social connections are important drivers of happiness, both at the individual and national level, and across cultures. It also acknowledges that sharing meals re-mains an understudied measure of social connections. That doesn’t make sense to me, somehow, when you consider how embedded the notion of ‘getting together for the Holidays’ has persisted, through thick and thin, war and peace, and ties of social upheaval like the 1960s and the post-Baby Boom Era.
No matter how divided your family may appear to be over politics, religion or social issues such as Women’s Rights folks have consistently demonstrated how hard they’ll fight to get home and argue about it around the dinner table. Just look at the record crowds we’ve seen at airports before and after major holidays the last couple of years. It appears that, the tougher it gets to do so, the harder folks will fight to ‘make it home for the holidays’. And ‘be there’ for the family feast…
The official bumpf…
WHR researchers have [shown] stark differences in rates of meal sharing around the world. And re-ported rates of depression, feelings of social disconnectedness and life satisfaction in general have shown a consistent association with the practice.
There’s an old saying: “New York City is the only place in the world where you can feel lonely sur-rounded by 8 million other people…” In a world where the majority of folks admit they don’t know their closest neighbours, that’s not really surprising.
Social commenters are quick to point out that many of us – particularly those who live fast-paced urban lives – are just too busy to slow down and get to know the neighbours. Likewise, folks tend to move away, geographically, from early-life friends and family to take advantage of higher education and employment opportunities.
I agree with observers who say my generation – the Boomers – initiated this extreme degree of human and social separation. It wasn’t until the negative consequences started to show up that people started talking about the problem. I shudder to think of how widespread the damage has become, as a result of the shift in priorities my generation made, away from family and community toward personal ones.
My take
… And I reflect on the simple, hard-edged wisdom so beautifully expressed in Crosby, Stills Nash and Young’s Woodstock (1970 – Album: Déjà Vu):
I’m going down to Yasgur’s Farm,
Gonna join in a rock and roll band,
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free…
I feel myself a cog in somethin’ turning,
And maybe it’s the time of year,
Yes and maybe it’s the time of man,
And I don’t know who I am,
But life is for learning…
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden…
My questions to you:
Are you one of the millions of folks my age worldwide who lie (and say ‘Yes’) when asked if they were at Woodstock?
If you are… Is it because you dearly wish you had been part of it?
If you don’t indulge in the ‘Big Lie’… Do you still wish you’d been part of Woodstock?
The Hippies didn’t change the world the way they sought to. And we ‘white bread’ Boomers got it our way, in the end…
If you could go back to 1970 and do it all over again, would you do things things differently?
Something to bring up at the supper table next time you’re home for a big family feast!
Muse on that…
~ Maggie J.