The First Bookup Dinner

On April 24 we hosted our very first bookup dinner 🙌🏽. It’s a new direction we are taking with our bookups, and after just one try we are already excited about it.

So…what exactly happened?

It was four of us around the dinning table in my living-room. The idea behind it was to find a more intimate environment which would help people open up and have an encounter in the purest sense of the word. When you open the doors of your home to people, you take the first step in putting your guard down, and signal to others it’s safe to follow suit. When you put food on the table, people begin to bond. And so, having shed layer after layer, you are left with some very beautiful human beings.

I didn’t want to stress too much about dinner or making complicated dishes (also reminding myself that I have no cooking skills whatsoever 🙄…) because my stress would have transferred onto the guests as well. So we had some light vegan dishes, wine, beer and desserts. And that was enough to keep us going for 3 (three!) full hours…

What did we talk about?

The topic of the bookup was the movie Annihilation. As the bookup host, I was curious to see how other people interpreted the film and what they made out of it. There were as many interpretations as there were people:

1️⃣ A journey of the individual through life, with its ups and downs, and securing survival by finding a purpose beyond your own identity, larger than life;

2️⃣ A new attempt at representing alien life which, as opposed to the majority of past attempts, does not resemble human form (at least, not at first sight) and which has no distinct form (comparison to Solaris);

3️⃣ An immersion into the subconscious and the depths of the human psyche, focused on the human drive for self-destruction, annihilation of one’s identity, and re-birth of a new, fitter self;

4️⃣ A journey of trials for two lovers ending in their re-connection as a couple.

In a nutshell, this bookup was a unique experience which I wholeheartedly recommend. It has the potential to bring out the best in us as human beings: our intellect, our emotions, our need for deeper connection.

What’s next? We have lots of surprises coming up 🎁, so stay tuned…