I love lunch. Have for many, many years. Although no one would ever mistake me for a “foodie”, I do enjoy a good lunch. I don’t even like food that much, but lunch is different. In fact, if it weren’t for the shaved head, the goatee, and the overall aggressive attitude, I could easily be one of the “ladies who lunch”. In truth, when breakfast is an apple and dinner is cereal, lunch is kinda all that’s left.

My love affair with the noon meal began during my working years. My early-morning workouts cancelled out breakfast and my daughter’s swimming schedule took care of any meaningful dinners, that left lunch. I had a high-stress position as the director of a science division at the Centers for Disease Control (when it was a respected, scientific meritocracy that led the world in public health; in other words, pre-Trump). In that environment, lunch became a desperately needed respite from the pressure and demands of my job. The rules were simple, but immutable: leave the building, no discussion of work, no phone checking, and, for God’s sake, be interesting. The food was secondary. Those lunches worked wonders.

For me, the food is always secondary. Sitting at a table with one, two, or a few friends; discussing important or stupid topics; getting to know those people; that’s what’s special about lunch for me. Except for athletic competition, talking with someone over food is the best and quickest way to get to know them, for better or worse. So many friendships are started or cemented over food.

Everyone always wants to go to dinner. “Let’s have dinner.” “Can we get together for dinner?” “Next time, we’ll have dinner.” Dinner is the social meal. Breakfast is “the most important meal of the day” (who says?). It’s way past time for lunch to have its big PR campaign.

Give me a tasty lunch with interesting people and I’m good. I love lunch.

ps. Just a short 400 word essay to try and get back into the swing of this. Expect more to come, but on more substantive issues like politics, science, and the erosion of everything we thought this country stood for over the past 250 years.

pss. I recently read “The Killer Angles: A Novel of the Civil War” by Michael Schaara. Outstanding. Don’t have any idea how it escaped me all these years, but I’m so happy that I finally found it.