Nice essay! Having young kids, I've found that dinner parties are a great way for the whole family to socialize—way easier and more fun than trying to do the same at a restaurant. In addition to this convenience, I've come to appreciate the chance that hosting provides to sharpen the virtue of service (your note about not overdoing it notwithstanding). And, of course, it works so well in the reverse: when you're the guest you practice the virtue of gratitude.
I've also noticed that dinner parties can work especially well with children – or with intergenerational groups more broadly. Yet another reason to have more of them!
We like to host dinner parties. July and August are key hosting times for us. My guess is we host four to six per year because they take a lot of effort, mostly from my wife who has a wonderful sense of aesthetics, which she deploys to great effect.
We will usually aim for eight to ten and the conversations will sometimes be the entire table and sometimes a few side conversations.
We will also have gatherings in our home that are more like cocktail parties. They are different in kind but they still bring people together IRL so I don't discount them.
So far this year, we've only hosted one proper dinner party and three gatherings.
Wonderful piece. Even and autistic and deeply committed introvert like me misses the dinner party. On that note, I want to be invited to your dinner party. I just don't want to attend. I am concerned that, and forgive the obvious here, we're just no longer a "social" animal? That somehow, our fear (or delight?) in some virtual reality has arrived. The film 'Videodrome' comes to mind as does David Foster Wallace's, 'Infinite Jest.'
Nice essay! Having young kids, I've found that dinner parties are a great way for the whole family to socialize—way easier and more fun than trying to do the same at a restaurant. In addition to this convenience, I've come to appreciate the chance that hosting provides to sharpen the virtue of service (your note about not overdoing it notwithstanding). And, of course, it works so well in the reverse: when you're the guest you practice the virtue of gratitude.
I've also noticed that dinner parties can work especially well with children – or with intergenerational groups more broadly. Yet another reason to have more of them!
Beautiful piece!
We like to host dinner parties. July and August are key hosting times for us. My guess is we host four to six per year because they take a lot of effort, mostly from my wife who has a wonderful sense of aesthetics, which she deploys to great effect.
We will usually aim for eight to ten and the conversations will sometimes be the entire table and sometimes a few side conversations.
We will also have gatherings in our home that are more like cocktail parties. They are different in kind but they still bring people together IRL so I don't discount them.
So far this year, we've only hosted one proper dinner party and three gatherings.
Wonderful piece. Even and autistic and deeply committed introvert like me misses the dinner party. On that note, I want to be invited to your dinner party. I just don't want to attend. I am concerned that, and forgive the obvious here, we're just no longer a "social" animal? That somehow, our fear (or delight?) in some virtual reality has arrived. The film 'Videodrome' comes to mind as does David Foster Wallace's, 'Infinite Jest.'