Dinner parties in DC are interesting events.

I’m sure in New York the conversation revolves around the latest Broadway show, or how expensive things are getting, or the newest “it” designer. In L.A. it’s a combination of the arts, plastic surgery and the latest boutique one has to shop at.

You never quite know what the conversation in DC will be, but it probably won’t be what’s listed above. Yet, eventually in any conversation politics come up, mostly likely the election, but sometimes it’s a bill on the Hill or a press conference that was given the day before. More often then not, the conversation turns into one about issues.

Case in point, a friend and I went to a book-signing last week made up of a close-knit group of people to which we were outsiders. We found the row house on the Hill and went in. Over expensive bottles of wine we mingled, discussing the current state of China, the pro-life stance and the slew of recent movies which give adoption as an option, the persecuted church and the abuses they suffer in different countries. The audience was mostly in their 30’s. Scanning the host’s bookshelf I discovered rows of C.S. Lewis, Bonhoffer, Tozer, praised novels on Burma, China, Nixon, WWII, autobiographies by Hillary, Obama, Albright, fiction “classics”, and a modge podge of Christian apologetics. It was a fascinating mix of people from all different aspects of the city.

Contrast that to the other get-together I attended. Enter another close-knit group of friends ten years younger. It’s 10pm on a Saturday, there are stacks of cards and plenty of beer. The conversation falls on the election, immigration, reforms in the government, and who in the group can lie the best. Then the brilliant idea – a drinking game! Laughter ensued, the conversation turned to literature and movies, relationships and dating… This host’s bookshelf is a collection of treasured fiction, key books on development and poverty, bios on Albright, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Shackleton, history of the Middle East, Africa, along with a smattering of classic kids novels and Christian apologetics.

Two parties, two tones, two groups, both in different stages of life. One in the present, a time I would not change. A time of friendship, laughter, figuring out life, and getting by pay check to pay check. We don’t have the opportunity to vacation in Venice for a month, or buy the greatest collection of wine, none of us own where we live. But in a city that is cold and impersonal, where everyone is a networking opportunity and time for real relationships does not exist – it’s refreshing to have a group of friends you can just be with.