As you may recall, Squiss has never really shown signs of concern that we eat things that were once small and cute. We may be entering the end of that era, to G's and my infinite regret.
Last night, as we were sitting down to a dinner of braised lamb shanks, Squiss asked what we were having. "Lamby-lamb," I announced.
"Oh! Yummy!" she exclaimed. And then, displaying knowledge, "Lamb is sheep."
"Yep," I replied. "It's baby sheep."
And there we went. Her face screwed up in an expression of some sadness. "Oh, I feel sorry for the baby lamb!" she sighed.
Fortunately, we had an out: her school says a non-religious grace before meals that they call simply "bon appetit": "Thank you to all the people, plants, and animals, that made this meal possible. Bon appetit, you may eat now." Squiss went through a stage of insisting that we say it every night at home, and G and I liked it, so it recurs intermittently. When Squiss started to melt down at the prospect of eating baby lamb, G jumped in with the idea that, in that case, it was especially important that we say "bon appetit" tonight. So we did.
"Thank you, to all the people, plants, and animals -- especially the baby lamb -- that made this meal possible." And so on.
It seemed to work, at least for the moment. She then settled down happily to her lamb shank (our girls eat their meat on the bone, thankyouverymuch), and worked on it so hard that she had sauce everywhere except her forehead.
I do think that a certain kind of grace is important. Not that we ever say it. But there is something to the idea that a few ritual words remind one that the thing being eaten was once a live animal, and that we killed it because we are also animals. To apologize to the dead and to promise to try to live without undue waste: that's what grace ought to be about.
The one you describe is good. But it's always freaked me out that they say "bon appetit, you may eat now," instead of "bon appetit, now you may eat."
Posted by: Oonae | 27 January 2008 at 06:47 PM