Tea time is a chance to slow down, pull back and appreciate our surroundings.

At tea time, all the noise, greed and aggressiveness of the '80s can be drowned out. For 45 minutes, anyway.

You'd be surprised how much easier it is to conduct business over tea than over lunch or dinner in a bustling restaurant.

We are not passing values on to our children. We are not sitting down at the dinner table talking about the tiny things that add up to caring human beings.

What the bride should do is call guests who have young children and say: 'I'd love to have the kids at the wedding, but we won't have room. Would you get a baby sitter, and when we get back from our honeymoon, we'll have you guys over?'

For every step forward in electronic communications, we've taken two steps back in humanity. People know how to use a computer and answering machines but have forgotten how to connect with one another. Our society is unraveling. We're too self-obsessed.