HOSPITALITY

Hospitality as an act of reciprocal giving is at the root of the sacrificial traditions of Our Druidry, making contemplation and an attempt to achieve a thorough understanding of this virtue essential to effective Druidic practice. Hospitality as practiced between ourselves and the Kindreds mirrors the hospitality we are probably more familiar with in our this-worldly lives.

Hosting a guest in your home is a disruption no matter how willing you are to have them stay. The fact that “host” and “guest” both come from the IE root *ghosti, with its encompassing meaning of “stranger,” points to a fact of hospitality: being a host or being hosted is a very intimate experience as we partake in aspects of each other’s lives that we ordinarily do not. For some of us this sort of intimacy can be quite uncomfortable. I admit that often, even when I agree that we can host someone, I do not manifest this virtue wholeheartedly but out of a sense of duty. Regardless of the degree to which I am feeling welcome, however, I try to strike that artful balance between solicitousness and a laissez-faire “leave them alone” approach. When staying at someone else’s home, it is likewise important to me to be a considerate and appreciative guest as at least partial repayment for that inconvenience. We have had many guests who were well-behaved, as well as a few who were disastrous enough to make me want never to put a friend through that!

The concept of reciprocity in these interactions is important: when our generosity is met with disrespect then the likelihood that a guest will be welcome to stay again is very low, and we can expect that if we’re not good guests we won’t be invited back. Not only this, but if a guest is being a mooch or otherwise not holding up his end of the *ghosti transaction we are less likely to give as generously of our goods and time as we would otherwise. Likewise with the Kindreds: we cannot expect their assistance and alliance if we do not hold up our end of the bargain at least as well as they do.

One aspect of most religions nowadays is the concept of charity; Christians and Muslims among many others are enjoined to practice charity of some sort by their faiths. In my experience Pagans do not often talk about charity as a religious duty; I believe part of this is the result of Paganism being the reconstitution of faiths from days when charity was not seen as a virtue separate from that of hospitality. In many of the cultures we look to, one would ideally not drop coins in the cup of a vagrant or transient—one would take him into one’s house and feed him and give him shelter as best as one could: charity and hospitality were one and the same. The realities of modern life prevent this from being a prudent course of action, but some do manifest this form of hospitality in other ways. I think particularly of two ladies from the Christian church I attended: Lee Ann Draud and her adopted teenage daughter Nikki. These women’s ministry took the form of organizing and running the University City Hospitality Coalition (there’s that word again) which Lee Ann has done since 1990, and which Nikki has done all her life. UCHC feeds the hungry at no charge—and with no religious obligations attached—six nights a week in the West Philadelphia area in various church halls, and the vast bulk of the work falls to these two women. This taking in of hungry people and maintaining them by feeding them well is a deep form of hospitality; for those of us who cannot do this sort of work, donating to similar worthy causes can be a way to increase hospitality towards the needy.

BACK TO VIRTUES