Two parties where strangers are open to each other, parties where strangers want to find and celebrate common ground. Around the table where the wine is poured, then, as now, we make connections. I say to a perfect stranger. A conversation begins, and before long I discover someone whose roommate from ten years back knew my youngest sister when they were in college together. I ask someone who looks like a VCU undergrad and soon realize that our taste in art is similar though our style of dress is not.
Laughter lights up the rooms.
We discover we are strangers no more, but members of one family. And then the wine runs out. When we have no wine, we move away from the central table where strangers gather. We move to a corner of the room. We chat with family and friends.