Here, you people come to the table. Stomachs likely guide the mosey towards the kitchen but many times I see you sticking around for just a bit longer than planned. It may be your interest in knowing about the next nerd-night challenge or a yearning to taste some freshly crafted steaks. Whatever it is, you come. You pause, if only for a moment. And you fill.
Coming to the table isn't about having the most efficient conversations. It is more about what happens when you come together, slow down, look into one another's faces, listen to one another's stories. Accounts of the latest movie about a man falling in love with a Siri-like character or explanations of what a RGBDToolkit output really is. These moments are needed. They are fruitful.
Another thing about you people is that you have a ridiculous amount of options. Bananas. Pop-Tarts. An assortment of teas & coffee (even Chai flakes). A communal fridge (with some weird face drawn on it). A secret candy stash... The list goes on. You also have your fair share of certified foodies lurking around every corner. You people are often assessing tastes, textures, or scents. Chatting about the best places to grub or the tastiest recipes. It is cool and it reconfirms your cultures ability to bring people together.
"It's not, actually, strictly, about food for me. It's about what happens when we come together. It happens when we break out of the normal clockwork of daily life and pop the champagne on a cold, gray Wednesday for no other reason than the fact that the faces we love are gathered around our table. It happens when we enter joy and the sorrow of the people we care about, and we come to the table to feed one another and be fed, and while it's not strictly about the food, it doesn't happen without it. Food is the starting point, the common ground, the thing to hold and handle, the currency we offer to one another." - Food & Wine, Shauna Niequist