I’m in rehearsals again, for a beautiful musical called Come From Away. It’s a story of kindness, generosity, and radical hospitality, based on real events.

On September 11, 2001, after hijackers crashed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, U.S. airspace was closed; every plane in the air was directed to land immediately. Hundreds were on their way to the United States at the time. International flights either turned around, if they were able, or were re-routed, mostly to Canada. The airport in Gander, Newfoundland, a town of about 9,000 residents, ended up receiving 38 large planes, each with 200-300 passengers. Though Gander is quite small, it has a very large airport because it used to be a major refueling stop before jet planes could make transatlantic flights on one tank. For five days, the residents of Gander and surrounding communities fed, housed, clothed, and cared for 7,000 confused, frightened, stranded travelers from around the world.

When I first heard about this show, several years ago, I thought it sounded pretty mawkish. I really didn’t think it was for me, and I skipped the tour when it came to Popejoy. I’m usually drawn more to emotional complexity and conflict, shows with teeth and grit. But then I saw a recording of the Broadway production, and it cracked my heart wide open. I love these characters, these people we get to portray. Rehearsals have been sweet and tearful for a lot of us as we revisit this moment in history and consider how it changed the course of everything.

Come From Away depicts how, amidst international tragedy, people rose to the occasion and the best of us was revealed. The message feels like exactly what I need in my life right now and what the world needs to remember — the power and possibility of simple kindnesses, the assumption of goodness, and the hope and change that this can inspire.

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So hospitality has been on my mind. I’ve been noticing all the ways it shows up. I’m trying to be a good host when that opportunity presents itself and practicing receptivity and appreciation when I’m treated as a guest. Some of us find a more natural fit at one end or the other of the host-guest spectrum. The key, I think, is recognizing the complete blessing of both.

“Guest” and “host” both come from the same Proto-Indo-European root, which meant “stranger.” The terms include each other. One doesn’t exist without the other; guests and hosts create each other. They are two sides of the same coin.

Embedded in this idea is an ancient code of reciprocity: treating strangers as ourselves, doing unto others as we would have them do unto us.

This golden rule reminds me, also, to pay attention to how I treat myself — all my different aspects and qualities. It’s both practical and wise to be loving, kind, and compassionate with ourselves. A penurious self-concept, critical and unworthy, is going to throw my treatment of others out of whack — I become cruel or codependent or both.

Hosts with the most are ones who recognize everyone, including themselves, as guests of great honor.

Hafiz wrote:

If God
invited you to a party
and said,

“Everyone
in the ballroom tonight
will be my special
Guest…”

How would you then treat them
when you
arrived?

Indeed, indeed!

And I know
there is no one in this world

Who
is not upon
God’s Jeweled Dance
Floor.

I can’t wait to be with you this Sunday, August 2, 10:00am at q-Staff Theatre. With the divine Patty Stephens. XO, Drew

©2026 Drew Groves