It's Universal

For those of you who know my wife, Chalmers, you know she fights an uphill battle everyday with household of all males - me, 3 boys, Luke (the dog), and Greer (the cat).

There is always a directive, discussion, debate, protest, etc. around clothes on the floor, "why does your stuff have to be in the middle of where we live..", the consumption levels of milk, and so on.

Dinner has become an art for Chalmers. The schedule is always challenging with practices, meetings, etc. The menu, i.e who like green foods - who doesn't, who likes fish - who doesn't, etc. is more like a crossword puzzle exercise than menu planning.

Probably the steepest part of the daily hill is when we all can have dinner at home together - where to serve the meal. The majority of the household would like dinner on their own "turf"..Luke likes his bowl on the patio by the den door, Greer likes his food served on the driveway outside of the garage, and the rest of us about 6 to 9 feet directly in front of THE TV.

Chalmers has adapted well however, now when she wants the family to sit at the table for dinner she goes ahead and sets the table and then waits for one of the boys or me to say.."so we're having dinner at the table tonight, huh?" - in a tone like Columbus discovering the new world.

In fact, when Chalmers gets pressed - she knows she can always throw out some wings from Gus' and a starch or two in front of the TV and the hounds will circle up and do what they do.

BTW - it even works for me as the other day I caught John & David taking a meal in front of the TV while watching an ice hockey game on some 700+ channel. I asked them what they knew about ice hockey and David said..."it's hard to see the puck".


So I tell you the above to tell you the below (and this is for you Chalmers):


As you all know Jim & I stayed at the Presbyterian School last night in Nsaba.

Dinner was planned at 6:30 p.m. with the school's chaplain and our driver (Samuel).

If I hadn't told you the above, you probably would have had a picture in your mind of us sitting around a table talking about the school, politics, cultures, etc. You'd be wrong.

Jim & I showed up to the room for dinner and in front of us was...the local form of chicken wings, white rice, and noodles all laid out about 6 feet from....you got it...THE TV.

There was a FIFA soccer semi-final game on TV being broadcast live from Germany. I am not sure we knew who was playing - Samuel knew one team - but that was about it. It didn't matter - it was the game.

So, there we were trying to have a little bit of dialogue while taking in our wings, rice, & noodles all while watching a game that no one really had a vested interest.

The takeaways are:

1) Chicken wings and a couple of starches fill the belly and soothe the soul of the male gender, AND
2) It's not about the sport, it's about the GAME, AND
3) Guys might not be able to find where they laid that last clothing item or we might have to be reminded about that upcoming special date, but you can bet one thing for sure - with a little help from electricity and satellite TV where ever we are in the world we can find a game on right at dinner time!

It's like home.

It's Universal!