A Party with Harmonious Parts

     Concinnity, I think, just might be the secret to a good party.

    "Concinnity" means "the harmonious arrangement of various parts," as at my New Year's Day party, the parts of which were:

    Food. In the South, where I grew up, eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day brings good luck throughout the year, so I gave my guests black-eyed peas and cornbread. And cookies—stained-glass cookies, rum raisin brownies, date bread, chocolate chip mint cookies—on plates around the room. There was wine, beer, or sparkling water. Later, I hand-ground coffee beans for fresh coffee. (See post on April 14, 2023, for a description of my coffee grinder.)

    Atmosphere. A few days before the party, three friends came over to help me strew cedar boughs on the bannister and cedar swags along the wall, all accented with Christmas lights and Christmas-fabric bows.

With those boughs and Christmas cookies on the window-sill, the house looked festive and party-ready. 

    Theme. T. S. Eliot provided the theme:

        For last year's words belong to last year's language

        And next year's words await another voice

    My invitation had suggested people bring three words for this year. At the party, we drew words from a vase and read them aloud. "Fitness, friendship, adventure, hope, health.…" One person wanted "lots of fine poetry." Another wanted to "raise [her] vibrational frequency." This worked even better than I had envisioned. People enjoyed discussing meanings and philosophies.  (My own words came from my dread of 2024: "politics, climate change, fire," but we didn't discuss them.) My favorite word, of course, was "concinnity," as described above, which a friend had brought specifically for my linguistic delight.

    Guests. This, the most important part for a harmonious party, I had in spades. I was the only person who knew everyone—neighbors, skiing friends, hiking friends, friends from the Applegater, from the Siskiyou Crest Festival, from my poetry group—but harmony among strangers created friends. One of my favorite images of the party was seeing various people, formerly strangers, enjoying each other's company. I have such wonderful friends!

    Appreciation. As guests left, I offered each a small cellophane packet of rum balls, tied with a ribbon on which I had written, "Happy New Year." But perhaps what I should have written was, "Thanks for contributing to the concinnity of my New Year's Day party!"