Dinner Guest

When I tutor a student in writing, I often have them begin the session with a free-write. Tonight I posed the question if you could meet anyone dead or alive who would it be. I thought of this based on the old ice breaker question of “If you could have dinner with any five people who would it be?” The following are my five minute free-write thoughts.

If I could meet anyone in the world, alive or dead, I have no idea who it would be. There are cliché answers like, “A celebrity!” These answers seem great in the moment, but beyond telling them, “OMG! I love your music, movies, etc,” I’m not sure how meaningful the experience would be. I’ve met some celebrities, and while I am very glad that I got to talk to Luke Perry about hand sanitizer and thank William Daniels for being an inspiration to teachers, I am not sure that I could have a full conversation with a celeb. Unless they were like a celebrity makeup artist or a costumer. Another good answer would be relatives that I never got to meet or don’t remember meeting. However, the only ones I would really want to meet I either am happy with what I know (my grandfather who died when I was two) or am finally satisfied with answers about (the long lost great grandmother who I finally learned about last fall).

When I talked about my response with my student this evening, I mentioned how some people want you to give a big existential answer. I didn’t mention specifics, but I’m sure some people judge you if you don’t say something like “Jesus” or “Ghandi” or “The OG Dahli Lama.” Likewise, I think people expect you to mention people like Abraham Lincoln, but even with as much as I like history, there aren’t any historical figures that I’m like, “Yes! Invite them to dinner!” I think the easiest answer is that I am happy having dinner with the people that I frequently share meals with now. I don’t need a fantasy dinner party to be satisified. I’ll take dinner at the table with family and friends any day! Not saying I would turn an invitation down if it happened, but I just don’t have a “dream dinner party.”

Thoughts on this?

XOXO,

The Great Kaysby