100 Business Days Out: Day 85 - Home Lunch

It is our week of venturing out. Today, Patti, Louie and I took the ferry over to Block Island to have lunch and spend the afternoon with Jerry and Jenny Noonan. The Noonans, friends since our days at Frito-Lay/PepsiCo in the 80's, have been summering out on Block Island for nearly 20 years now and a few years ago moved to a spectacular home on the southeast side of the Island. The view is panoramic of the ocean and the backyard setting and view off of the porch is one that would make any postcard photographer covet. Jenny made a fantastic lunch and what transpired was, as we reflected on the way home, the lost art of the long afternoon lunch at someones home. Sure, we occasionally do lunch over business in a restaurant(usually because no one wants to go back to work) but when was the last time that you had someone over for a lunch at home in the middle of the afternoon to share a meal, a glass of tea or a glass of wine and just talk with no hard stop but just until there is no more to talk about? That's what we did (although there was still more to talk about...we didn't want to totally overstay our welcome). And it was just an ideal afternoon. No other way to say it other than it was perfect. Mark Twain once said that the best way to mark the passing of a perfect summer afternoon was in a ballpark with nine innings of baseball. While, he may be more right than wrong, I would argue that good friends, good food, good drink, on a porch overlooking the ocean with a slight breeze and good conversation might just be better than extra innings. I can also imagine how nice it would be to take an afternoon from the office and go home, with colleagues, and have the same kind of lunch. If you think about the intimacy of opening up your home for this, then you also can imagine the level of conversation and potential productivity that could stem from one get together. The afternoon lunch at home is a lost occasion of a time before us. After yesterday, I intend to bring back that tradition in our household.