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Question174

Have any atheists created a non-theist 'grace' to say when asked to do so before a meal? If you have, would you please share it with us?

• 2 4 6 8 Bog in Don't wait (Meteorite Debris #1417)

• I know where the food comes from, so if I am invited out to dinner, I will usually compliment the host/hostess when it is served. However, I don't consider that as saying grace as much as being gracious. After the meal I will thank them, which I guess is being grateful.

  When I'm eating by myself, I usually just say 'yum, yum' and dig right in. (John Hachmann #1782)

• In the immortal words of Bart Simpson: "We paid for this ourselves, so thanks for nothing." (Eric #197)

• Not a grace, per se, but I do take a moment before eating to remember that something died so I could be fed. (Gregory Gadow #1897)

• No. I find the whole idea rather silly. If I'm in someone else's house, I politely decline to participate in the ritual and simply wait for others to finish. In my house, we just don't do it. My parents like to say grace, but they do it on their own time. (Paul J. Koeck #360)

• I've often thought about one, though never had occasion to use one (when I dine with xers, they know that I'm not a religious guy, so if grace is to be said, they know better than appoint me to do so). Here's what I've thought about. It's kind of a Unitarian Universalist grace I guess, but definitely not a theist one--a very secular humanist one in fact.

  We are grateful to the farmer in Thailand who worked day and night to grow this rice. We are grateful to the laborers who picked, cleaned, and bagged the rice. And to the truck driver who drove it to the port. To the captain and the crew of the ship that brought it across the ocean. We are grateful to ... [you can go on in this vein for as long as you care, thanking all the people whose labors made this meal possible; there will be thousands involved of course]. So many people worked to make this simple meal possible. We depend on them for our meals and their lives, as they depend on us for theirs. Let us appreciate this interdependent web that we are part of and remember to do our part. Blessed be.

  Well, I think it sounds rather corny, but I really wish I'd have a chance to say it one day. I just want to see the expectation in the xer faces (waiting to hear the awful J-word or the L-word) change into an expression of shock as I go on and on thanking humans, and then at the end, when the "blessed be" comes, the silent wtf's. (Orhan Orgun #1867)

• Frankly, I can't even remember the last time that I was present when someone else said grace. I know to a certainty that I've never been requested to say grace. If I were, I think that I'd try to politely decline. If pressed, and I had no graceful (NPI!) way to excuse myself, I'd probably say something like this:

  "Let us each take a moment to contemplate that which we find beautiful and good in the world. Let us consider our place before the universe, which is a thing both humbling and thrilling. Let us consider our relations to each other and the many invisible ties that bind us to every other person and being, down to the last speck of dust, in this cosmos of ours. Let us, finally, be grateful for our lives and for the food that allows us to continue our journeys through this bright mystery that is existence. Please eat." (Andrew Lias)

• Yup.

  "This food is the fruit of the earth, the work of familiar hands that we love, and unseen hands that we are mindful of. May it help to sustain us as we endeavour to live in peace until we meet again to enjoy each other's company."

  Inevitably, a resounding "Amen" pops out of people's mouths before they can stop it. (Patrick Gliddon)

• My husband and I toast our guests or each other if it's a special meal. We never initiate grace but some of our family members do on holidays, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving. My step-daughter and her husband always say grace at dinner. Usually he says it. The one thing that is nice about his idea of grace is that he also says a lot of nice things about his children that men don't usually say in any formal way in front of other people.

  It would be a nice idea to work on a non-religous appreciation of family members for atheists with children to say at a special dinners. (Eileen #948)

• "Let's eat." (dotcom #1469)