Magazine for July 2010
Crossroads
Toasted Lubrication
There is just something different about sharing food.
Sure, in the old days we used to welcome everyone to CROSSroads sessions with a drink and a biscuit, and it was received well enough, but we were immediately sitting round on the old sofas, fixed in place, facing each other, ready to start. It seemed okay and it was. Yet now it’s suddenly better.
Now each Sunday evening starts with a shared focus on the toaster, the kettle and ‘George’ the toastie maker. Everyone gathers either side of the bar, getting plates, smearing chocolate spread and waiting expectantly for the rattled pop of another 4 slices, crisp and hot and ready.
Hot margarined toast is good enough any evening, but it’s not so much the calories as the words that’s the real difference. Around food, we chat, relax, and get to know each other, and community and caring has space to grow. And it’s easy to be on a bar stool on the edge of the conversation – part of it without even saying a word. Sometimes, the conversation flows naturally into the night’s topic, and seamlessly the session’s begun.
“Okay, everyone to the sofas”, and we’re on our way.
Steve Hood