Can Picnics Help Save the World?

Is this a crazy notion?

Photo by White Feather

I’ve been a picnic freak my entire life. I am convinced that food always tastes better out of doors. I’ve had untold thousands of meals in my life but the ones I remember are the ones I ate out of doors. The picnics.

During the 18 years my daughter spent at home growing up we took her on countless picnics. In the early years it was at least weekly and often two or three times a week. Preparing a picnic was an extreme joy and I never considered it ‘work.’ Once the food from our picnics was consumed the entertainment began and that involved watching our daughter play out in nature.

Once, after finishing a truly delightful picnic meal we watched our little girl skipping in circles through the grass and leaves as she sang, “I’m full of fun, I’m a jolly old elf. I’m full of fun, I’m a jolly old elf. I’m full of fun, I’m a jolly old elf.” She kept singing those same words over and over until my wife and I were beside ourselves laughing.

Now my daughter is 30 years old and has two daughters of her own. While I was visiting a couple of months ago she was trying to think of something exciting to do with her family the following weekend. I suggested a picnic. She immediately dismissed that, saying, “Oh, that’s too much work.”