December 23, 2025
“When there’s no dialogue at home, when we’re at the table and instead of talking, everyone is on their phone, it’s the start of war because there’s no dialogue. … Families should speak at the table. They should listen.”
— Pope Francis
It was Christmas Eve, and Pete took his family to a restaurant in Littleton, NH. Outside snow was falling and inside Nat King Cole was singing “O Holy Night.” The holiday spirit was everywhere … except at their table. As he looked around, he realized all his kids were texting, while his wife was checking her email.
In the tradition of his mother, he proceeded to give the “THIS HAS TO STOP” lecture, at which point everyone reluctantly put away their mobile phones and tried to get in the mood of the season by talking to one another without insult or sarcasm, which wasn’t easy.
Satisfied that he had a minor victory, he thought back to his own youth. There were no cellphones, but their home had five TVs, one in every room, and per orders of his father, they watched television while they ate dinner, which meant what was on the TV was either war movies or Walter Cronkite.
Talking was prohibited, except on those occasions when family arguments erupted over the news of the day, which usually concerned Vietnam.
In the end when his father died, Pete realized he never really knew the man because on the occasions they could talk to each other — at the dinner table — the TV got in the way. He knew more about Walter Cronkite than he knew about his father … and he didn’t want his kids to look back someday and finally come to the realization too late that posting on Instagram wasn’t as important as a family discussion.
©J Pisani
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