Life · Community
In Praise of the Odd Number at the Dinner Table
Even numbers make a table feel finished. Odd numbers make it feel like something is still being decided.
I've hosted enough dinners to know the pull toward pairs — two by two, symmetrical, easy to seat. But some of the best nights I remember had five people, or seven, and a slightly lopsided conversation that never quite closed into neat halves.
The extra chair is not a mistake in the seating chart. It's an invitation the table itself is making.
An odd table forces someone to talk across the middle instead of just beside them. It is a small, accidental kind of hospitality.
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