Four

We are all getting back into dinner parties.  Of some sort.  Often inside.  Without puffy coats.

We are making up for lost time.

Six to eight. or more.

Not a lot, really.  But just enough to affect the dynamics.

We laugh.  We talk about acceptable topics. Or unacceptable.  We chime in.  We joke.

But at the end of the evening we don’t know the participants any better than we did before the evening.

We might recall that we liked their vibe. Had a positive time in their company.   But that’s really it.

We haven’t learned anything.  About them… or us.

Consider four.

Last Thursday we had two friends over for dinner.

I learned more about them in those few hours than I had in the last few years of dinner parties.

And it fed me.

I felt like I had been touched.  Made to think.  Learned.

Not just about them.  But me.

And it connected us in a way we hadn’t been connected before.

I think that with just four friends you lose the feeling that you have to entertain.  Or be entertained.

You are simply experiencing a moment in time together.