All I want for Christmas is ‘generous authority’

Why Priya Parker’s ‘The Art of Gathering’ is the best book I read in 2022.

What does it mean to gather? I thought a lot about that this year, thanks to Priya Parker’s 2018 book, “The Art of Gathering,” that was one of those books I couldn’t stop talking about this year.

Parker is a facilitator who gets hired to bring people together. Her book came out before the pandemic, but it, ironically, generated even more attention when the pandemic hit and we couldn’t gather in person. Within a week, millions of people around the world had a new appreciation for what it meant to “be together.”

Virtual weddings and funerals on Zoom. First dates and last words, via Facetime. Birthday parties, work happy hours and trivia night, on a screen. 

Within a few weeks, Parker was hosting a New York Times podcast called “Together Apart” to help us navigate this new world.

We aren’t so apart these days. Thankfully. 

But we have all had to reckon with what it means to be a host, a guest, a frustrated employee who wonders why the weekly team meetings are so insufferable.

This is why Parker’s wisdom went viral. She helped us realize that gatherings aren’t just the big events; every time we meet up with a friend or organize a kids’ sleepover or sit down for dinner, we are gathering.

I picked up this book earlier this year for two reasons 1) I’ve always felt somewhat inept at hosting and 2) we’re hosting a wedding next year that was already starting to frazzle my nerves.