Dinner Party
Michael Jones
Copyright 2013 by Michael Jones
Chapter 1
“…And maybe that attitude had a little to do with me getting banished from Rome.”
“Even though I was right at the time, there was something else to be learned there. It wasn’t…”
And
“Feel free to ask anything you would like Mr. Parker; we are all open books”
These have been typical scenes of my Friday evenings and also my frame of reference for life as of recent. Let me welcome you to the dinner party, and quite the party it has been so far. I’ll try to catch you up. I would have started this story saying ‘once upon a time in a faraway land lived…’ but being the convergence of many lives from different points in history, I would have to start this story: Each upon their time, of varying distances from England, living interesting lives, have been coming here for dinner…
I can’t explain how or why I was given the task of writing a eulogy for the world, nor can I explain how it was possible for me to have people long gone from this world come for dinner parties, but it happened. There was one recurring theme that resounded from everyone I had the chance to talk with. Each admitted that they had thought the end of the world seemed near; but that hundreds, or for some, even thousands of years had passed, and here the world still is.
I have no idea whether what I am writing will be the eulogy for the world, or just Chapter One of it. Either way I’m excited for the adventure.
It is odd that the only home we can currently remember seems to be days or years away from disappearing. The question I still ask myself, but have yet to answer, “Is it this world, or just the present that seems so transitory?” In my mind I have built up many plausible conclusions, but I still do not know which I should believe. The irony of belief is we will never know whether we should believe, because when we know, we’ll know.
At any rate, what I do know, there is some great purpose for which I should write these things. I imagine it important that this writing be unbiased. If it was for that reason or another that I was chosen to write it, I am not sure. I will however do my best. To quote one of my closest guests, “Trust is a bridge between logic and hope,” and I hope you will trust what I am about to tell you.
First, let me tell you a little about myself. Born to ordinary parents in Belfast, Ireland in 1895, it is now 1968. I live in England, on the outskirts of Cambridge. What a great many things that have happened these seventy-three years so far.
I consider myself somewhat of a scientist, musician and philosopher. I like to think of myself as a fairly rational person. I am not scared of the unknown, but I do fear the known; not in a sense of a paranoia, but in a sense of knowing the reality of what is; recognizing and respecting it. The ocean is full of fish and wonders and many have sailed its expanse, but both the ignorant and the wise can be swallowed up together by the power of the sea. I would say I have a curious mind; I love asking why, and figuring out what each thing has to do with the other. I feel that all truth is interconnected by and founded on love.
I love people. Rain falls and trees grow and follow their set course, but man is free… or can be. That is what sets us apart.
As we learn to love each other despite uncertainty and sore experience, rising up amidst the fire and fear of the crucible, we can set our soul free.
Love knows no depths deeper than that of within humanity, be it family, friend or stranger; it is a love in its culmination so deep, that one’s own selfishness, pride and fear are crushed and drowned by joy and peace.
When I was young I always wondered how things worked, why the world revolved around the sun, or what really made fire burn. The task was always finite and an answer usually emerged. Gravity has to do with mass, and fire has to do with stability. The human mind however can never be explained. I became more and more fascinated in trying to see what another person sees… anyone else in fact. I have been able to see things from the shoulder I gave someone to cry on, but never exactly from their shoes.
I feel almost as if my whole life I have been being prepared for the work on which I now embark: writing this book. The future is intriguing and the present ever-changing, but once I got my first hold on the past I was hooked.
I wish that more people had written more things. The holes in history are like looking through a darkened glass. Luckily I was able to fill some of those holes in history with real testimonies. Better yet, the testimonies were given by those for whom, the cares of this world and clutter of excuses were long gone; where only real motives and facts had enough weight to still exist.
Scrambling through pages upon pages of notes I am still not sure I know where to begin, or what all to include. Many, if not all of the dinner parties so far have ended late in the night, or should I say early in the morning, with myself barely coherent enough to say goodbye to the guests, and make it to my bed before falling fast asleep.
I didn’t dream much of anything those nights. The events and conversations of the evening played over and over in my head; and such good conversations they were! I would have to say that the passing from this state of living to theirs is much more settling to me now, seeing that each one of them was the most content and kind of anyone I have ever met. Not a quarrel or squabble between any of them.
I hope as you accompany me on these dinner parties that you enjoy them, and also take something away. To quote a guest, “With a small amount of effort a seed can be taken from an apple, with a greater effort, one that is also greater in its greatness, an apple can be taken from a seed.” If anything, I hope you will look at life a little different, with a little brighter and a little happier outlook and insight than you would have before, if so, I have done my job.
We all notice different things in music, culture, art, literature, and anything else, because we take time to notice them. If anything, the first few dinner parties that have happened so far, have reminded me to notice the details in life that have taught me (mostly without my being aware), the nature of happiness.
So with great pleasure I end this introduction to the dinner party and welcome you. Remember, “If you came, and you wanted to come back, then you’re always welcome.” I do hope you keep coming back.
Alright, Let’s go back to three weeks ago where it all began...