Fried Cheesy Things and St. Patrick's Day

Things in life change.

What you find humorous or painful, even what you find enjoyable and satisfying seems to change as you grow older. I’m not sure these changes are necessarily better, but I’m almost sure they are.

This past weekend served as one of those moments in which I realized that life is very much changing. Friday night, my family, and two of my closest friends, met for dinner at Tamarind, the best Thai restaurant in south Florida, and had a great time simply enjoying each other’s company. Great food, great friends, and two hours in, I wished we could have started all over again if our stomachs could manage it. You can’t help but wonder- it’s as if family and food were two things intended to be married to each other.

Actually, I think they were.

On the flip side, Saturday loomed as the great party of all parties. Somewhere along the way St. Patrick’s Day became this crazy animal of an event in America. My own hometown of Ft. Lauderdale stands on its head, literally, each year for the day of green. We braved the crowds earlier in the evening Saturday night to our chagrin, only to stand at an “Irish” pub/bar waiting 20 minutes for a beer, while countless of my tanked fellow residents bumped into us. We lasted 20 minutes, before we hopped back in the car and headed north.

There’s always a first for everything. As we headed north to Boca, I was about to experience my first true Latin family dinner. My friends who went with my family and I the night before, invited me to come along and experience their family. It was the grandmother and matriarch of the family’s birthday. Complete with food, dancing, dessert, and very attractive women (what!?) our St. Patrick’s Day took a huge turn for the better. Since we didn’t eat until almost midnight, I had time to think about what had stirred me the night before.

There’s something about family.

And we all know there’s something about food.

And when those two things come together, there’s simply nothing like it.

I come from a very small, yet tight family. I have no aunts, uncles, or cousins, since both of my parents are Only Childs, so whenever I get to see a very large family enjoying themselves, I’m like a kid in a candy store. The large family dynamic is something I hope to experience someday soon. I’d love to marry into a big big family, and I know I hear you naysayers out there…I really do!

Life changes though. When dinner with friends and family, and family parties become so much more appealing then the downtown partying scene, life has changed. Twenty minutes downtown Saturday night was twenty minutes too long for us. Give me panang curry, kim-chee tuna, homemade flan, and little fried cheesy I-don’t-know-what-they’re-called- fried things, and I’m set.

The thing about families though is that they’re two things at the same time, beautiful and broken. Most families don’t have to look too far within themselves to see tragedy and brokenness. The beautiful aspect of family is that through that brokenness, people find love, belonging, and renewed purpose. So when a family comes together, they share there pain, and they celebrate. They bring their tragedy, and they bring their laughter. And in the midst of all the chaos and turmoil this broken world brings us, for a little while, when we all gather, we see a glimpse of what things should be like. What they will one day be like again.

The scriptures tells us of a day when a very large family will gather around a very large table and have a feast. This feast though will be different than all the rest we’ve known. This feast will know no pain, and no tragedy, only the joy of grace and the abundance of peace and love.

So until that day, we enjoy our own families. We share great food and wine together, and we share our pain and suffering, and together we look forward to the day when our food and wine will know no tears, but only peace.

Maranatha!

Ecclesiastes 9:7
"Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do."