Table Rituals By Laurie Tarkan

The establishment of law and order far and wide across the United States, was for one main reason: to maintain the peace and order of this country. Laws are designed to keep us safe not only from each other but from the government as well. It is very important that the laws be followed by each and every individual in society, in order to insure maximum efficiency and security, this however is nearly impossible, due to the variable of human behavior. Laws are designed in the manner to protect from human action or otherwise known (or speculated) natural results. It is a simple way of avoiding cause in order to not deal with the effect of an action. This essay is in response to the essay written by Laurie Tarkan “Table Rituals” in which she states

When one of these is absent, the others lack as well. In context, if an incentive was in place for promoting marriage and/or requiring an obligatory time or amount of time, several of the above listed variables would be violated, in turn affecting the others as well, for example: if a specific amount of time was allotted for family activities, such as that of eating dinner together (Tarkans’ example), families would find it more difficult to convene or stay convened in the manner that is expected. The reason for this would be the lack of willingness amongst the family being replaced by an expectation to convene. An example of similarity would be that of a study conducted on day cares. It was found that parents who would leave their children at day cares past regular hours, were fined for the extra time their children were kept. This fine did not deter the rates at which parents left their children past hours because of the implied statement that it left. It implies that so long as the fine is paid it is okay to leave the children at the day care for an extended amount of time. The problem with this is that the moral repercussion was done away with due to the financial repercussion. One justified the other, and failed to do away with the amount of kids kept past hours. This logic can be applied similarly to that of incentivizing family cohesion. What brings a family together shouldn’t be a possible fine or even a reward, it should be the yearning of family bonding by the family members