Quickwrite of the Day #71: Breaking Bread
“Writing can be used as a vehicle to express ourselves as we negotiate the journey through our lives” (Gallagher, 2011: p.24)
Today’s Quickwrite:
To ‘break bread’ literally means to share a meal together, but this saying is about so much more than eating with others! It’s really about forging a meaningful connection with another person or group of people, to see past differences and to find common ground. In other words, it’s about trust, forgiveness and recognition of common humanity.
Naomi Shihab’s poem ‘Gate A-4’ from her collection Tender Spot captures the spirit of ‘breaking bread’, when she describes a Palestinian woman sharing mamool cookies with others at the airport. Read an excerpt of the poem below, or watch a video of the poet reading the whole poem aloud here.
“She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool
cookies—little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and
nuts—from her bag—and was offering them to all the women at the gate.
To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a
sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the
lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same powdered
sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie.
...This
is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that
gate—once the crying of confusion stopped—seemed apprehensive about
any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too.
This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.”
Taking this idea as inspiration, what examples of ‘breaking bread’ can you think of, remember or imagine? You might write about:
Who do you break bread with? Who is welcome at your table?
A food-sharing ritual that brings people together
Objects, gestures, actions, occasions or events that bring people together
A moment where people can finally move past their differences and see the common humanity in each other
A moment/moments of connection
Or anything else you are reminded of or can imagine!
Want more Quickwrite topics? Check out the slide deck here, or see it in presentation mode on your Resources page.
Happy writing!
