Wow I'm realizing I haven't updated this in awhile. I'm really bad at blogging :/

When I started reading the book the first thing that stood out to me was on page xiv: "You don't have to be an extrovert. In fact, some of the best gatherers I know suffer from social anxiety." Even before opening the book the first thing I was thinking about was my own social anxiety and the fact that I have avoided so many gatherings due to an overwhelming sense of fear. I guess that may have been my issue because at the back of my mind while reading this way, "I don't really do gatherings," or "I would love to gather but I can't," and so I think I got in my own way while reading this.

Like, the first chapter was all about having a purpose for your gatherings in order for it to be successful. I'm sure that works and a lot of what she said made sense. But that requires me to get to the point where I would even want to create a gathering.

Then on the next chapter when she was talking about exclusion I could, again, understand why it would be beneficial to exclude. However, I also think that currently a lot of people aren't GOOD at excluding. Is it better to exclude poorly or be too inclusive? I know I am more on the inclusive side but that's maybe because my knee-jerk reaction as vehemently anti-exclusion is very... prominent.

The host thing and the rule thing was cool too... I just have a lot of internal issues I need to deal with before I can even get into the minutiae of a good gathering.

Of all the things, I think the idea of creating rules for a gathering is really interesting. I guess whenever I've been considering my own gathering for this class I've always been thinking of what types of actions I want my guests to participate in. I guess instead of actions it is more about rules which, ironically, seems more freeing.