Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Meals (Igor Cerny)

[R Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

A couple of comments:

Personally, I think round tables seating six are ideal for dinner conversation. 
 I have the usual obvious problems with long tables seating eight or ten — 
including substantially increased dining room noise, as people yell at each 
other over long distances, or cross-talk in multiple conversations at the same 
table.

And at Cornerstone, I’ve been experimenting with a mid-week meals program 
called Dinners for Dozens — that is, one simple meal for the first dozen people 
that sign up, first come first serve.  Tables are small, dining room is quiet, 
participation rotates naturally, it’s not a big deal like the Sunday meal, and 
seems to be a popular alternative.

Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Village Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

> On Sep 14, 2015, at 8:48 PM, Igor Cerny/USA/MD/21791/LVC via Cohousing-L 
> <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> I hear and read so often that community meals are the lifeblood or the core 
> of community life and I often struggle with this concept (and maybe because 
> deep down I'm an introvert?).  For me, I find that the depth with which I can 
> connect with a person varies inversely to the number of people there are at 
> the table.  So, for me, if I'm sitting with 1 or 2 other people, it seems 
> that I can more easily find out about what's really going on with another 
> person versus when sitting at a table of 6-7 people it seems that the 
> conversation tends to stay a little more (for lack of a better term) 
> "superficial."  Do others find this to be the case, and if so, are there 
> creative ways that communities have addressed this phenomenon?  For example, 
> do some communities have large tables as well as smaller tables for meals?  
> 
> Igor Cerny
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