The dinner table

There is no beating a good convivial dinner (sometimes misconstrued as supper) which is a meeting of minds as well as a food experience.
If the food is good, it was, then the conversation is the cherry on the top and with the opportunity to discuss subjects outside the parochial local interest, I was a guest of a South African family, we covered the ground of two continents.
The age gap between us was also bridged by the inclusion of a young women, their daughter who's opinion was spiked by her experience and modern rational more in keeping with the current trend which is often alien to ourselves.
The beauty of sitting around a table eating is that each person is caught in the headlights, as the topics floated from the food to the plight of the immigrant / refugee in Europe.
The impact of our conversation and opinion was both inclusive and specifically individual as we seek to describe our inner most thoughts whilst attempting not to throw the baby out with the bath water by being too radical and leaving no room for manoeuvre.
Intellectual jousting is an art form best left to the intellectual but we joust never the less and gain our own kudos by appearing smart enough to hold the stage for a minute or so.
Language is at the crux of our endeavour to impress. Knowledge plays a poor second as we throw out our ill formed prejudice, in the guise of knowledge and bluster our way forward to quench any alternative to a pithy summation.
The bluster and excitement of the after dinner conversation can be the making of the evening.
Not withstanding the food, the real contest to win hearts and minds and to register as someone with something to say is pre eminent. The contest of the mind and the hope of making contact is the most 'sort after' thing we as humans can aspire. Given that we are so physically alike it is only the mind and what it has to say that is important and the traditional setting of the dinner table is a setting not to be wasted.