February 20, 2008

Table for Five (or six, or seven)

This is from Brian’s blog:
“I was talking to some of my fellow grad students a couple days ago, and to pass the time, we thought we'd have a fun conversation. We all responded to this question: If you could have any five people (living or dead) over to your home for dinner and conversation, who would you pick, and why?”

So this turned out to be an extremely difficult exercise in editing. Out of a list of about thirty here are my seven for the moment:

Sambo Mockbee
He was an architecture professor at Auburn University and created the Rural studio program. His holistic approach to architecture, poverty, and education puts many in the American church to shame. He would bring a great secular approach to the table and provide good discussion and great insight.

Bill Waterson
His completely counter cultural approach to success reinforces the greatness of the man who created Calvin and Hobbes. I would love to talk with him about life, art, and culture.

George MacDonald
Who wouldn’t pass up the story telling capacity from this big bearded Scot?

St. Francis of Assisi
I don’t know many saints but the couple that I do know (Augustine and Francis) are truly awesome examples of Christian men. I chose Francis because of his passion for life and his commitment to the poor. It would be interesting to hear the conversation between him and Mockbee.

Isaac McCaslin
Faulkner’s main character in Go Down Moses instantly resonated with me. His respect and understanding of the land and of his family drew me to him. Once again, I imagine the conversations between him and Mockbee and Waterson to be of extreme value.

Andrew Wyeth
Definitely my favorite recently discovered artist. I don’t know what he would be like in conversation but his ties to the land and his observational skills couldn’t hurt in this group.

John the Baptist
John is someone who my imagination loves. He is passionate, wild, and in general seems like someone who would keep you on your toes. He also seems like he could be pretty funny and has some good stories to tell.

I would like to add in Sam Beam and Darren Arronofsky to the mix just because I would love the artistic results but I am already stretching the predetermined capacity.

5 comments:

Brian Franklin said...

Since you quoted me, I'll allow your seven people. But don't push it!

Grace said...

Dear Jacob -
this is a very challenging exercise. For starters, I'd want to have John Adams - he was one of the greatest minds of his time, and as a founding father has no monument, nor is his face on any money.
I'd also love to have David McCollough, one of my favorite authors, who won a Pulitzer for his biography of Adams.
By the way, the picture that's at the top, where is it?
Also, I'm sure that you already know this, the FW paper has a big article about the Martin Puryear exhibit opening this weekend at the Modern.
Hope y'all have a good weekend!
Grace

Jacob Haynes said...

Grace,

The picture was a parking Garage that was being demolished in Austin. Hope you like the new picture, Laura just stiched a bunch of her panoramics today so I have alot of cool pictures for my headers.

Anonymous said...

hey, I don't know anyone on this list. you are way too educated for your own good. Why don't you just pick simple people like Jesus and Thomas Jefferson. and maybe Barbie. what would Jesus say to her...

Anonymous said...

Just to let you know, it wasn't me who left the above comment.

But, if I had to choose 5 people to eat at my table, I would choose six.

Mom