Illumination Writing Challenge

When the Dinner Bell Rings, Who Will be at Your Table?

If you could choose anyone, dead or alive?

This is a response to a challenge offered by B. A. Cumberlidge. a few weeks ago. I am catching up on my writing prompts, so here goes Brian, and thanks so much for asking this great question.

This probably isn’t the first time you have heard this subject broached. I have read that employers might sometime use this as an interview question, and I have answered it as an icebreaker/introduction question at a class at the National Fire Academy.

A classic approach to this is to draw from the past and select notable historical characters to invite to your dinner table. Presumably this is to gain some clarity on why they did certain things or made certain choices, for instance why did Reverend King become an activist? What was his catalyst, and what might have occurred if he didn’t choose to speak up?

Those historical figures could certainly shine a light on many of our questions and provide a fantastic perspective, but no matter what they say it will still all be in the past. But, granted, those are probably solid answers on a job interview or meet and greet.

When asked at the Fire Academy, I choose John F. Kennedy because the educational experience there centers on leadership, and he seemed like an interesting enough character faced with some noteworthy challenges.

But, in real life, I don’t know that I would be all that interested in talking with him if I only had one shot at a dinner with anyone I choose.

Rather, I would elect to invite my kids to dinner at a point in time where they are the same age as I am.

Yep, I would like to have my two sons and three stepdaughters all sitting around the table with me, and each of them would also be 52 years old. (Well, I guess if we did it in the next 13 days, I would still be 51, and the youngest. Ha!)

Here is my reasoning:

I have been there to witness all the many phases of my two boys as they grew up. And now over the last few years, I have also had the wonderful pleasure of watching three young women grow up and make life decisions as they move through their late teens and twenties.

The thing is, when each of these five people hit a particular phase in life, it is twenty-something plus years removed from when I was going through the same things. While we remember a lot, many of the little things that made all the difference have faded into obscurity.

I remember the decisions I made, but the emotions surrounding those decisions are greatly faded. I recall what I did, I don’t remember how I felt.

And, even if I did, the way I experience emotion has changed over time. The way I grieve today is different from when I was twenty. My sense of gratitude has morphed immensely over that time as well.

Being a parent is tough. And I didn’t realize how unsuited I was for the job prior to becoming one. At each new achievement in life I celebrated that it was easier to communicate and interact with my boys when they were younger. We slowly began inching towards a similar plane of understanding.

Now that they are adults, that narrowing of knowledge gaps and understanding has pretty much stopped. We are now experientially as close as we will ever be. Sure, they will all be 52 someday, and hopefully I will be around. But I will be in my late 70’s or 80’s by then. My life will have changed significantly from where I am at now.

That is why I would love nothing more than to sit and listen to my five children tell me about their lives when they are at the exact same age as me.

B. A. Cumberlidge. offered up a menu when he wrote about this prompt. His was pretty fancy and sounded delicious. I would definitely want to eat that meal at some point.

However, I am thinking that, for this dinner with my kids, that it might be best to have something simple with minimal fuss for preparation, presentation and clean up.

An enchilada casserole for example (enchiladas where you don’t bother to roll up the tortillas with the filling inside, rather you just layer it — easy!) would do the trick, with some chips and pico de gallo on the side.

That way we could enjoy the meal and linger long afterward sharing our stories through the evening.

Thanks Brian for offering this prompt. It really got me thinking about life and raising kids in a way I hadn’t in while. Now I really wish this could happen. Would someone please work on creating that magic for me?

I notice that Brian didn’t tag anyone in his original prompt. I think his story deserves a few more responses, so I am going to tag in my recently adopted group, The Crew:

Eli Snow, Daniel G. Clark, Tree Langdon ♾️, Eashan Reddy Kotha, Paroma Sen, Keno Ogbo, James G Brennan and Uchechi Obasi.

And I will add a few more, Charles Roast, Sherry McGuinn, Rasheed Hooda, and Holly Jahangiri (did you notice the 13 in this piece?)

What say you all, who would be your dinner guests?

If you like this, you might like some of my other recent writing, including my July daily roundup of writing challenges such as this one:

And a recent response prior to this challenge:

And a wrap up of June’s final week of new writer stories: