A few days ago Grannie Annie had posted a question on her blog asking her readers to name the historic figure they would most like to meet if they had such powers or opportunity. It could be a celebrity or a dead historic person...whatever. I said that I wanted to meet my great grandchildren and my great, great grandchildren in the future and not go to the past. Why? Because I have an ego that would like to know if any of my loves, beliefs, etc. filtered through the generations. Did I have the right perspective? I would also be curious as to where they were in the grand scheme of things. How they made a living, what they loved, what they fought for and how the world was treating their generation. Did they still have the freedoms we fight for today? Were they able to live their lives as they wished? Did I recognize anything in their personalities that touched a chord?
One of Grannie Annie's readers/responders (who is in the music industry) posted that they had met celebrities and found that they were just regular people. I think that is true with most of the famous folks. They are not super smart, super strong, super beautiful...they were just in the right place at the right time and made the right decision or history rewrote their story and it seems to us that they made the right decisions. Or they were given a great talent and they were smart enough to nurture it. (Then, of course, I would pay money NOT to have to meet some of these celebrity idiots today...like that woman who just had a baby and is married to a controversial rock star and whose accomplishments consist of pouting and sticking out her (plastic?) chest.)
About 20 years ago I was watching a street festival in the Bahamas as part of a happy crowd. I glanced up at the over 6 foot thin black man standing next to me. I recognized him but could not for the life of me place him. After a time, I realized it was the man my children had watched on the TV show, The Electric Company. It was Morgan Freeman, whose fame is far greater than that educational program...although he still works on education with a TV space science program today. He even attended an international conference of physicists recently as a guest. I was both too intimidated and too polite at that time to interrupt his Caribbean vacation and act like a fan, and therefore, I let him be. I glanced at him now and again, and could have touched him we were so close, but we both had our privacy because it was dark at night. I do sort of regret that, but I am sure he does not!
We have all had these mental exercises of whose brain we would like to pick. One fun exercise I read (or heard about) a few years ago was a dinner party guest list. If you could invite 5 interesting people to eat dinner with you...who would you invite? I would most certainly include Morgan Freeman because he is such an eclectic and good person. Also at that time I read about this exercise I was younger and enjoying and thinking of inviting the humor columnist, Erma Bombeck,...an early woman's liberationist's advocate who used a laugh instead of a bat to make her point. She could keep us laughing right into dessert. Two down and three to go...whom would you invite? And perhaps a neat additional question...what on earth would you serve?
Five people I'd like to have dinner with? Normally I'd pick artists but eating with artists (unless it's in their studios) probably isn't all that interesting. I'll pick great wits such as:
ReplyDeleteVoltaire
Oscar Wilde
Benjamin Franklin
Jonathan Swift
William Blake
I would serve cornish hens with wild rice dressing! One of my specialtys.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would like to eat dinner with my grandparents...they passed when I was so young. I have tons of questions. It would be s lively and interesting night.
Hugs
SueAnn
I would have to give this some serious thought. The very thought of giving d dinner party makes me a nervous wreck. I would probably abandon the idea before sending out the invitations.
ReplyDeletei think morgan freeman would be a great dinner guest...ha...
ReplyDeletei would eat with
jack kerouac
allen ginsberg
lewis & clark
moses
I'm with SueAnn, I'd invite my grandparents and to round it out to five, my maternal great-grandmother.
ReplyDeleteNot sure who I would narrow this down to. I'd love for it to be a pot-luck, though!
ReplyDeleteWell - I'd probably just attend your party - if you don't mind...
ReplyDeleteWhile making a guest list might take a while, i know i'd serve gumbo, and an etouffee, and made from scratch banana pudding, at least.
ReplyDeletevery GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDD LOL
ReplyDeleteActually, that would make a splendid post for many. Would you mind if I use it some time?
ReplyDeleteI’d probably invite historical figures, perhaps a mixture of good, bad, saints and sinners, just to see what it takes to be larger than life.
And maybe an ancestor or two.
Actually, could I have several such parties?
I think I'd go with Erna Bombeck and maybe Nora Ephron. Social, convivial people who understand the art of conversation. Maybe Henry James and H.G. Wells. Who else: Jane Austen, maybe?
ReplyDeleteGilda Radner
ReplyDeleteBill Clinton
Pat conroy
Paul Simon
Helen Mirrin
Maggie smith
Gov. Chris Christie
Pat Riley
Melinda Gates
Jeff bozos
Dale chihuly
Bezoz
ReplyDeleteAuthors E Moon, Cadell, Stevenson, and an endless list of many more; E. Roosevelt and another list of women who made a difference, A whole list of painters, Poets. Old dead friends and my grandmother. :)
ReplyDeleteServe? Lunch: Salad and Muffins with a sorbet for desert. Dinner: Perhaps a veggie lasagna, garlic bread, antipasto salad, and chilled fruits for desert.
I love the idea of going into the future to see what my grand/great grand kids lives are like. Going to borrow the question, if you don't mind.
ReplyDeleteAs for the dinner party guests, my grandmother, a great aunt, my MIL, an old friend, and a special SIL. There would be so much laughter.
Um, I'd like to remove Chris Christie from my guest list. Just don't feel like socializing with him right now. Thank you.
ReplyDelete