FOOD WITH FINGERS

EATING FOOD WITH FINGERS I gaped in breathless wonder, in petrified awe, as Daddy fed our infant son, Imhotep, with his fingers, a medley of collard greens' pot liquor and cornbread mash, at our dinner table. "Won't he choke?" I asked him, gasping. "You didn't choke." he dead-panned. Even as we spoke, though, our first-born son was greedily, hungrily, sucking away on Daddy's delicious-clad fingers.This memory came to mind this morning, as I ruminated on a friend's observation that lambs must be fed differently than sheep; which made me wonder if truth were too strong a food for the young? Given our modern propensity to feed the young artificially with manufactured milk formula and so-called baby food, is there any wonder where ADHD, allergies, asthma and other ailments and disabilities come from? Garbage in and out! What brought us here, got us here. It will surely keep us here! To complete the thought, about food, fingers, and truth, I also recall having accepted the honor of an invitation to dine with at a friend's home from Ghana. They served a delicious dish known as "Fufu," that was a dough-like substance over which chicken and broth were served. We all ate this with our fingers! Another time, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1983, on a group tour, we were taken to a popular restaurant where beautiful Ethiopian women fed us "Tej" a spongy bread adorned with meat, spices, broth, while also giving us sips of wine, "lej". Might as well mention, Aunt Mary Stanford, of Meachum Park, Missouri, and St. Matthews C.M.E. Church, our home church. I once saw Aunt Mary and Uncle Otey (Otis) Stanford eating their dinner with their fingers in the kitchen of their modest home, while I was in grade school. Mamma just smiled when I told her.