You're listening to LifeKit from NPR.
Hey, it's Marielle.
There's this saying, everybody wants a village, but no one wants to be a villager.
I saw Priya Parker post about this online.
She's a conflict resolution facilitator and author of The Art of Gathering.
So she thinks about community and relationships a lot.
When I post on Instagram,
dozens of types of gatherings that other people are doing in part to inspire people to host more gatherings
because we have a loneliness crisis.
The majority of the comments I get, the DMs I get are,
oh, I wish I was invited to something like that.
One time,
she posted the obituary of a man in New Orleans who hosted these Monday night dinners where he'd cook red beans and rice and invite neighbors,
friends, and strangers to his table.
He hosted thousands of people over many years.
And this post, it went viral.
And what's interesting to me about it going viral,
the majority of the comments were, I wish I was invited to a dinner like that.
And I'm thinking, host one, host one, host it.
The best way to get a seat at the table is to host the table.