If a person's whole life is immersed in work, he may miss a lot of the wonderful life that originally belonged to him while being exhausted. Fortunately, a dinner with an old Swedish secretary completely saved me. The meal was not sumptuous, after all, the old lady was the only one guarding the big house and entertaining everyone, but the oil paintings everywhere and the small ornaments and candles within reach made the dinner lively. The whole night I was thinking that the visual effect will always occupy your mind at the first time. If you think it looks good at first glance, you will chat smoothly and eat happily afterwards; if you look around and see only a few plates of lonely cold dishes in an empty house, it is basically "streaking" on the table, and it is a sexual frigidity, and you will suddenly feel a kind of despair of being in prison.

In fact, the dining table has never been just a place for eating and drinking. Europe has a long history, but the visible evolution of the dining table is only four or five hundred years. Counting on one's fingers, with religion, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the World War, the Civil Rights Revolution, each wave of technology and civilization has brought the beauty of the dining table forward.

Looking back at the end of the Middle Ages, it is hard to imagine a group of bearded ministers and kings sitting around a table in a dark wooden house, pounced on the roasted pigs and swans on the table with their fat hands, and drank, howled, and tore the meat. It feels like they would not live to see the second episode of Game of Thrones. In order to prove his strong body and incomparably solid power, Louis XIV, the Sun King of France, devoured "four plates of soup, a pheasant, a quail, a large plate of lettuce, a plate of original garlic lamb, two large pieces of ham, a large plate of dessert, and fruits and jams." In the barbaric years, not to mention putting pleasing flowers on the table to set off the atmosphere, even ladies found it difficult to fight for the right to eat at the same table.

Later, Britain and France went too far and added extremely painful red tape to the dining table. Over-emphasizing the sense of ritual and exquisite tableware is like flying into a vacuum in a space suit, and everything becomes extremely cautious under instructions. It is beautiful, but it is a process that needs no spoilers in a step-by-step manner. The strong sense of restraint is sometimes not as good as the barbarians before, at least they can express their true nature happily.

Living in this era is actually very lucky. At least you who can read this article basically don't have to worry about food and clothing, nor do you have to follow too many dining rules. These changes have given the dining table more space for placement, and diners more social space. And space means a greater degree of imagination and play. This is a compromise between the secular and the elite, and a compromise between tradition and reality. It has also inadvertently contributed to today's more casual and open table setting.

Emerson once said in On Nature, "To be human: to love beauty is a kind of interest, to perceive beauty is a kind of rhythm of life, to melt into beauty is a kind of nature, to create beauty is a kind of highest virtue." Beauty is the only universal language in the world. Appreciating a famous song or an oil painting can make people happy physically and mentally, and setting up a talking table can easily bring people closer.

Although the threshold for table setting has been lowered, it still takes a lot of thought to complete a beautiful table setting. Many people always curl their lips and mutter to themselves "It's just a plate arrangement, nothing special, I can do it..." when they first come into contact with table setting. Yes, it is not difficult to copy someone else's table setting exactly, which is even easier than installing Lego blocks or IKEA furniture. But the thing is, copying "Do you know? Do you know? It should be green, fat, red and thin" a hundred times is not enough to be Li Qingzhao.

Some people are at the other extreme, always saying that they don't have enough space at home to take out the best dishes, so they might as well not cook. I'm curious, no matter how bad the conditions are, there is always a dining table, which is much better than a piece of cloth for a picnic. But seeing how other people can still cook a picnic, what reason do we have to refuse an opportunity that could make life more beautiful?

God always loves his people. When we were ignorant about table decoration, he sent us two table artists, one is Catharina from Sweden, and the other is Zeng Yanbing (Old Bing). Recently, they each launched an aesthetic appreciation of table decoration - "Four Seasons Table" and "Endless Good Times". Looking through the exquisite and amazing table patterns, you will deeply realize that life can be unfolded in this way, and other people's world is so refreshing. And they jointly held "A Journey of a Table" at Beijing 798 Art Center, and through the tacit demonstration on the spot, they directly put the fantasy forest on the table. At that moment, I would rather believe that they are table dream makers.

The dining table is where every dream comes true. It is where the host expresses greetings to every guest in the most harmonious and warmest way. I can imagine that the word "return" must be in their dictionary. Catharina lives in Northern Europe, and returning to nature has always been the theme of her dining table. Any flowers, weeds, dead branches and fallen leaves in nature can be used by her. The most authentic natural colors flow infinitely on the dining table through her arrangement. Bing Lao lives in Beijing. From the various dining tables she arranges, there is always a return to the most wonderful human emotions such as family, friendship and love. As the titles of the two books she published successively say, sitting around the dining table, "Love is eating many meals together", there will be "endless good times".

Their career experiences have allowed the beauty of the dining table to flourish. Coincidentally, Catharina and Bing Lao, both Capricorns, have studied fashion design, worked as teachers, studied flower art, written books, worked in the media, and walked in the fashion circle. The life experiences at different stages have projected the essence of each level onto the final dining table, allowing them to be free and have countless display spaces to display. Their careful observation of every detail in life is an inexhaustible source of material for them.

The most important thing is their consistent love for beauty. It can be said that they are people who understand and love beauty, and all beauty comes from their hearts. Maybe we can't reach the heights of these two artists, but I still suggest you start with table setting and spend more time to appreciate the beauty of life. Only by making yourself beautiful can you attract more beauty like a magnet.