Friday, September 27, 2013

Which five people from history would you choose to have dinner with and why?



  Ok, here’s the million dollar question. Which five people from history would you choose to have dinner with and why? They can be living or deceased. One for the money,two for the show, three to get ready and go man go! 

Leonardo da Vinci
“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes skywards, for there you have been and for there you long to return.” –Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo had his hands in all sorts of pies. Casting the net of knowledge, he amassed an extensive understanding on many subjects. He set the blueprints for the future. A very eccentric polymath (A person of wide range knowledge/learning), da Vinci is known for many things: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. Say that ten times fast! Even though he has been dead for 494 years, I am sure he could give the greatest minds of today a run for their money.

Joan of Arc
   
 “One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.” -Joan of Arc. (Reminds me of a Shakespeare quote: “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”)
                
  She was persecuted for her Roman Catholic beliefs and was prepared to die for them. That is of no little matter. I am ashamed to say, in my life; that I don’t have anything that I believe in so strongly about that I would be willing to die for it. On May 16, 1920 she was canonized. Joan of Arc is the patron saint of France. She was and still is a very inspiring, romantic figure in history.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
   
 “Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, Love, Love that is the soul of genius.” –Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
                 
 An enduring enigma; combining both light and dark harmoniously. I had the privilege (although I didn’t know it at the time) to study his works in music class. Papageno/Papagena anyone? Or perhaps the Queen of Night Aria? It has been surmised that Mozart heard the voice of God. I don’t doubt it; his music is so prolific and moving.

Laura Ingalls Wilder
                 
 “If enough people think of a thing and work hard enough at it, I guess it’s pretty nearly bound to happen, wind and weather permitting.” –Laura Ingalls Wilder.
                 
 Selfishly I choose this one. These were the stories of my childhood. I probably have read each of her books at least a thousand times, and they never grow old. I remember being over the moon when my Grandma informed me that Laura Ingalls Wilder used to live in the same town as my Great-Grandma Blahnik (Spring Valley MN).  These are touching stories about a tight knit family trying to get by; surviving on just enough.  Laura Ingalls Wilder was so much a part of my upbringing. I feel like I know her on a personal level, even though she died many, many, many years before I was born. I recommend these books highly, and for the life of me I don’t know why they are not listed more highly on the list of classics.

C.S. Lewis
                
  “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”-C.S Lewis.
                 
  Many people are familiar today with ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’. However the one that I am used to and grew up with was the 1988 BBC version ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.’ Between the two; I would ask for the latter, always. Barbra Kellerman, who plays The White Witch, always gave me the creeps! I mean come on! Some chick comes out of the forest; in a sled, producing sweets out of thin air? And promises to give you more if you hand over your brothers and sisters? What the crap?! You know my mom told me to never talk to strangers, and I have a sneaking suspicion this is why.

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