It’s a beautiful display, all at once, of all the food groups facing you, filling nostrils and mouths beginning to water. The table is set, and everyone is seated except the oldest who seems to appreciate the bathroom more than the rest of us. I think to myself, it’s okay, it’s a party. We’re in no hurry for it to end.

“When was the last time I had a linen napkin?” I wonder to myself. If I had this party, I’d have to buy a bunch of them for a group this size. The dishes look as elegant as the napkins, but I’m too shy to turn the plate over to see who’s responsible for creating this fine china. I resign myself to “go with the flow,” as they say and just enjoy the evening as it unfolds. I see lots of spoons in bowls and platters, but I also see that I have only one fork. “Ummmm. I guess I better take care of this one fork,” I think to myself.

“Family style” they call it as you pass dishes to each other amid loud conversations and feeling as though you’re reenacting a scene from “The Waltons.” I see one person holding the bowl making it easier for the older woman who just can’t seem to get that bean she wants onto her plate. Another courteously refrains from the portion he truly desired so that the last person can enjoy some as well.

A perfect meal with delicious tastes at each round. Afterward, the dishes are carefully picked up and the hostess surprisingly alerts us to “keep your fork.” I’m dumbfounded. I think to myself, “That explains the expensive dishes and napkins.” “She couldn’t afford enough forks for us. Poor thing. Surely there must be another set of forks lying around that she could extend to us.” I stare at my one fork and I’m glad that it’s not as dirty as it could have been. I’m also wondering if I should take the fork home as a souvenir of my “one-forked” evening. I assume she’d miss it since we needed to keep the one already in our possession.

I play with it during the lull while I see others moving theirs around as they talk and laugh. We are all waiting for our one fork’s final use. Something was mentioned about dessert, but the youngest among us dismiss the notion.

There are many courses of food during life. Some include academic lessons that we work through to get to the next course but the best and most valuable are life-lived lessons. All of it includes food – for the body, mind, and spirit. The most important part of any course or meal is the digestion, the time of simmering and letting rest what has been taken in. We digest a lot about our relationships and about ourselves during this wonderful banquet we call life.

Through all of life’s entire largess and bountifulness, we keep our one fork. We often think there’s another one waiting for us if we only do this or that or think that or this. However, there is only the one fork that we save.

Why? We need it for dessert.