Stories

Lunch Packs Powerful Punch

Around the noon hour every day, most people pause for lunch. This midday ritual is the occasion for a wide variety of meetings. These meetings can be as simple as “grabbing a bite” by co-workers to the gathering of two or more longtime friends who stretch the hour “catching up.”

A lunch can grow in importance to be called a banquet with a program and a guest speaker. These lunches become a time of fellowship for groups of professionals such as realtors, lawyers, and bankers to Rotarians, Lions, and Optimists.

Lunches are a prime time to “close a deal.” Sales from the transaction of small costume jewelry to a transaction marked by digit spaces with which most of us are unfamiliar. A lunch is soup warmed in a microwave or a hotdog picked up from a sidewalk vendor with mustard and pickle relish added. Most restaurants offer specials for the lunch hour – discounted entrees used to increase noon traffic.

Lunches are offered at the finest restaurants and local burger joints. They can be food you crave and will travel miles to savor or the bland lemon chicken offered at conference gatherings.

Lunches can conjure memories of days gone by. Special remembrances of eating small, spaghetti shaped “Os” at six or seven years of age to a college favorite of two meat patties, triple buns and special sauce.

Lunches can usher in the beginning of relationships. They can be the stage for wedding proposals, the announcement of a pending arrival of a “bundle of joy,” and the hour when all the world comes to a standstill as two recount the years an anniversary marks.

Ever since my three daughters were small, I have spent time alone with each one. There were times when we would remain at home, but more often our time together involved “going out” – a movie, a trip to the mall, a daughter-father valentine dance.

Today, our “going out” is meeting for lunch.

“Dad, I’m through with class,” Amie calls on her cell phone. She is a student at UNC-Greensboro and commutes everyday.

“Do you have time for lunch?” I ask.

“Sure,” she replies. “I don’t have to be at work until 2:00.”

We choose our favorite Mexican restaurant and make plans to meet at noon. I begin to wrap up what I’m working on at the office and leave a little early.

I arrive first and order our drinks – sweet tea with lemon for me and water with no lemon for Amie. The chips and salsa are placed on the table as Amie steps through the door. Flavio, our waiter, takes Amie’s order – two chicken enchiladas with cheese sauce. I order the “Speedy Gonzales.”

The next few minutes are spent talking about schedules and what is happening at our respective jobs. We begin to discuss things that are of mutual interests – politics, art and upcoming movies.

As the water feels more comfortable, we swim to the deeper end of conversation. “Well, Dad I’ve been thinking,” Amie says.

“Thinking what?” I respond. The next thirty minutes comprises those things Amie has been holding closest to her. Plans for the future – her hopes. . .her fears.

I interject short responses, nod often and work to remain silent, offering a listening ear.

When it is my turn, I affirm and offer suggestions strategically. Sometimes losing control, I chase a thought like a man on horseback chasing a rabbit. (Amie is tolerant and forgiving.)

With all the lunch meetings occurring at the same time all over the world, I cannot imagine any other being more important. I feel blessed to spend this lunch with Amie. It is not your typical “power” lunch, but it helps build a powerful connection between daughter and father.

Back at my office, I look at my calendar and wonder what dates my other daughters Jenny and Mary are free for lunch.

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