Whew, the metaphysical hangover. We had Jack's grad party last night. Whatta whirl . . . last night and this morning.
The thing I hate most about parties is that I always, without fail, wake up groggy and thinking about all the guests I didn't even say "hi" to. What's the proper party protocol there? We're guessing nearly 200 people showed up at one point or another, probably close to 100 adults (the rest were Jack's friends). Since it's an open house, people came for all different durations. Some were there for four hours, some for thirty minutes. Is the guest supposed to seek me out, as the host, to say "hi," or is the host supposed to seek them out? I mean, it's easy to greet people when the first few are arriving, but when you have scores of people arriving at different times, it's virtually impossible to make sure you speak to everyone . . . and wholly impossible once you're in drunken conversations.
Anyway, I'm guessing I inadvertently ignored 20% of my adult guests. I'm sure they understand, but I'd feel better if the social mores gods say it was their responsibility to seek out the host, not my responsibility to find them.
I have an antinomian tendency to ignore social mores (I certainly am not offended that a handful of guests didn't seek me out last night). But I also think "small arts" like hospitality are overlooked to the detriment of society, and I also think such small arts were given Christ's seal of approval at the Wedding Feast at Cana (even if He also approved Mary's antinomian tendency over Martha's hospitality one), so I try to make at least a half-hearted attempt to practice them.
