JOYEUX ANNIVERSAIRE NAPOLEON BONAPARTE!

Do you know how everyone asks that question "What famous dead people would you want to have dinner with" Here's my answer, an exercise in running imagination in celebration of Msr. Bonaparte's birthday.

Shock! First, not Jesus. Ha ha. Cause he's not DEAD! He is the LIVING LORD. Gottcha on that one.

Okay. Today is Napoleon's birthday. Being strange little kids my brother Matthew and I were obsessed with different historical periods. Matthew favored violent assasinations and we acted out the Lincoln debacle, Czar Nicholas II's and his family's slaughter, Rasputin's legendary demise, Trotsky's death in Mexico, Kennedy, oh you get it.

My historical obsession was Rome in the AD 70's, Egypt's Middle Kingdom, and Napoleonic France! Woo hoo! Does the fascination with periods of mass contintental unity under one struggling dicatorial figure mean anything about me as a person??? *COUGH*

Given this who would I then have dinner with? (ANSWER THE DERNED QUESTION EMME!)

Napoleon Bonaparte, Edgar Allan Poe and C.S. Lewis. HA! Now that is a dinner party! We would start the meal with a romaince lettuce salad stuffed with veggies and a dash of vinegar, then a light but creamy mushroom soup. Following that would be a grilled to crispness trout, baked potato with red pepper, and steamed broccoli. Finally we would retire to cigars, brandy, and espresso.

Oh and here is where it would take place. We would be near a quaint village inside of a lovely and large limestone house with slate tiled roof and slightly unkempt massive gardens. Our dinner would be served in a square room at a round table made of mahogany with chairs upholstered in cream satin. Above us would float a chandelier dripping in crystals, dramatic and almost too big for the space. The food would come on silver plates, served by a stately old gentleman who would occasionally cough politely to announce his presence. Big blood red velvet drapes would keep out our mutual enemy, Mr. Sun.

Our lively conversation would be about Pascal (another good dinner guest choice), Phi and Pi, fatalism, books. . . Naturally Professor Lewis and I would turn the conversation to the dramatic crux of the True Truth of Death and the question of what one does with that knowledge. The history of the world with an eye on the Redemptive work of Jesus, the crucifixion, and Resurrection would probably dominate from that point onward. Napoleon would be passionate with his own historical admission that what he failed to do (unite disperate peoples through force) Jesus did through peaceful means reaching across the ages. Poe would vigorously quote the great authors and poets and more than likey spend a disportionate amount of time talking to me, as he was always most comfortable with women.

Napoleon would be dressed in silks. Poe in a black, heavy cotton suit. Lewis would be in a sensible British tweed suit set. I would wear a black satin corset, a silver cross and ared and black tulle and silk skirt that trailed the floor. My hair would be in a bun with a red rose and I would be wearing black ballet slippers with laces.


The End.