Ways of Saying Grace

Caption

Saying grace

TRANSCRIPT:

CHUCK REECE: When Thanksgiving is coming, I often think about my friend Anne Byrn, who is a food writer based in Nashville. Many years ago, Anne and I had a conversation about table blessings. We talked about the various ways we had heard people say grace around our tables.

I asked Anne to write about that, and later that year, as Thanksgiving rolled around, I published a beautiful story she wrote called “Our Ways of Saying Grace.” 

For that piece, Anne spent, and I quote from her story here, “several months talking to religious leaders, folklorists, teachers, friends, and families all over the South. I learned the blessing of food on the Southern table—saying grace—is alive and well. But, like our world, it has changed.”

I am sure it is still changing, particularly when political issues have become so divisive in our country. This time of year, it is easy to find stories in newspapers and magazines about people who ban the discussion of politics around the Thanksgiving table—or who refuse to celebrate the holiday with this family member or that one because of their political beliefs. 

So, what can unite us this year? There are bound to be things we can all be thankful for. 

First, I think, there is the table itself and the people who gather around it. In her story, Anne quoted the late Nashville journalist John Egerton, a couple of sentences from his landmark book Southern Food:

Family life often revolved around the kitchen and the dining table. Prayers were said at the table, important decisions were made there, and the principle of family unity was repeatedly reinforced there.

Second, there is the food that will sit on our tables. Whether your Thanksgiving dinner will be a grand feast for an extended family of a couple dozen folks or a more meager meal, the chance to nourish one’s body for one more day of life must always be a source of gratitude. 

Third, there is the phrase that’s so common among Southern table blessings: “and the hands that prepared it.” Somebody told me a story about a gathering of friends around a takeout meal—to-go barbecue bought from a chain that has locations All over the South. The person who volunteered to say grace ended the prayer this way: “Bless this food and the hands that prepared it…Sonny’s.” 

Even when the cook isn’t someone in your own family, blessing the hands that prepared it is never a bad idea.

And those three pieces, I think, are a fine recipe for a table blessing in times like these: “We are grateful for the chance to gather at this table, and for the food that sits upon it, and for the people who worked to prepare it.”

I hope your Thanksgiving dinner is free of conflict. Better yet, I hope it’s delicious.

Come see us anytime at SalvationSouth.com.

Salvation South editor Chuck Reece comments on Southern culture and values in a weekly segment that airs Wednesdays during Morning Edition and All Things Considered on GPB Radio. Salvation South Deluxe is a series of longer Salvation South episodes which tell deeper stories of the Southern experience through the unique voices that live it. You can also find them here at GPB.org/Salvation-South and wherever you get your podcasts.