For His birthday God invites a small group of His better works for an intimate dinner, for the company as well as for good conversation of wide range. For the occasion, a table is handsomely set for fourteen; thirteen in actuality, as Satan has canceled ("a head cold,” he says, more likely a nervous condition).

Thirteen, unlucky in some circles, yet thirteen it is. On God's left, Sappho, on his right, Hattie McDaniel. From Ms McDaniel, counterclockwise (boy-girl, boy-girl): Einstein, Hedy Lamar, Louis Armstrong, Coco Chanel. At the foot of the table, serving as hostess for the evening, opposite God, Judy Holliday.

Continuing around the table, to her right: Dante, Althea Gibson, Piet Mondrian, Pallas Athena, George Washington Carver, and back to Sappho. The table is unbalanced without the fourteenth, and the number is problematic, but the result depends on neither.

I am the caterer, busy at the moment. One of my staff is in the ER. She trimmed the tip of her finger while preparing the antipasto. I will update as time allows. 

~

(Note to self: Is Satan one of God's better works? Is he a work of God at all? Some would argue that Satan and God are one, serving the same purpose, assigning consequences to actions. Good and evil may be relative, and perhaps neither are pure, but each must have its consequence. If not, then from whence we came, so shall we return: a void without boundary, without time, without self.)

~

Update: hors d'oeurves served in the living room, the guests begin seating themselves in the dining room. A bit of a frenzy in the kitchen. We hold hands and say a brief Om. 

Update: The guests are introducing themselves. Mr. Carves gives grace.

Update: God welcomes each, thanks them for coming. The conversation becomes general, then more focused.

Update: Ms. McDaniel and God discuss the nature of praise. God chides Ms. McDaniel, ”you underestimate yourself," to Ms Daniel's having said, some time ago, ‘I did my best, God did the rest.’ "You overstate my contribution."

Update: Ms. Lamar suggests the depths of one’s ability, and the debt owed to an unknown entity, is part of the mystery. Mr. Carver suggests inherent ability and “gifted” ability are each part of the whole. Mr. Mondrian suggests the gift is the ability, the depth of ability determines the outcome.

Update: Mr. Armstrong speaks of ability versus opportunity. Pallas Athena speaks of ability as personality—as potential. Ms. Holliday echoes Mr. Armstrong, potential and opportunity are dependent.

Update: Ms. Chanel speaks of the effect of art, broadly speaking, on culture, and culture as a reflection of mores, and mores a reflection of nationalism; that is, ever-changing, subjective, and opportunists will dominate the conversation, effecting the outcome.

Update: There is talk of paradigm shifts, inevitability, linear vs cyclic social progress.

Update: The conversation turns political.

Update: Dante brings up Karl Popper's "The Open Society and Its Enemies," as reference, in consideration of current events. The analogy between then and now being obvious, and Popper's view, thought to be only historical, are, sadly, relevant.

Update: Ms. Gibson asks God if His will supersedes Man's will, though not in quite those terms. The question of will is the current topic.

Update: Ms. Chanel and Mr. Mondrian have quietly returned to the idea of paradigm shifts, whether fashion and/or art reflect society or vice versa.

Update: dinner is going well.

Update: God is queried by Ms. Gibson as to His role in the gods incessant interference with man's role in determining their own fate. Ms. Chanel asks Einstein of randomness (in terms of fate v. free will). Einstein replies in terms not of randomness per se, but chance.

Update: Maddy (she of the trimmed finger) is back from the ER, finger stitched and wrapped. Must keep finger dry and elevated.

Update: Mr. Armstrong questions Mr. Dante re: do fictional characters feel fictional pain; i. e. does the image of "Louie" Armstrong reflect the man Louis Armstrong, and what is the relationship between the two? Mr. Armstrong refers to Odysseus's place in the Ninth Circle. Ms. Gibson frames it in these terms, “image defines falsely,” which echoes Popper’s thinking.

Update: Dante speaks of the relationship between mores and ambition, ambition and opportunity, and, ultimately political opportunity.

Update: They are discussing evil v. ambition.

Update: Evil v. ignorance

Update: We clear the first course of soup and salad.

Update: The discussion veers from, and returns to, politics, specifically the will of one versus the needs of the populace. Ms. Chanel speaks of the void ignorance creates, and the willingness of that void to be filled by self-serving interests. Ms. McDaniel suggests that good is inherent, but is a weakness easily manipulated.

Update: Ms. Gibson brings the conversation back to previous question as to will and fate, God and the gods contribution or interference in determination.

Update: Pallas Athena suggests fate is not determined by the gods alone, nor by individuals, or even societal, actions alone, but by motives. Mr. Armstrong speaks of choice. Choice without knowledge is uniformed choice. Intuition, judgment, and experience inform choice, given to other resources.

Update: Ms. Holliday and Mr. Carver relate, to the group at large, their career paths re: chance, fate, will, determination, education, and opportunity. Einstein adds (or returns to) inevitability (which can be implied in more than one way).

Update: Ms. McDaniel reflects on the role of expectation in opposition to opportunity, in particular the role expectation plays in authoritarian dynamics, whether on a personal or larger stage. Pallas Athena agrees that expectation may be a significant motivator on both sides of authorianism. Ms. Holliday says, "the stories I could tell." 

Update: Ms. Lamar and Einstein further the discussion of inevitability. Not that the bomb was inevitable, it was, but does it suggest the inevitability of its use beyond it intended use. There is a chorus of voices in recognition of its inevitable use. Ms. Holliday refers to the Tower of Babel, God nods. 

Update: Mr. Carver suggests, if that is the case, then there is neither inevitability nor free will. Pallas Athen says, "true that," though not in those words.

Update: The main course is served.

Update: Ms. Holliday suggest the concept of "community" has been thwarted by the sheer size of the populace, and that without community the natural order of man is negated, obviated, and that controlled or uncontrolled chaos results. The ideas of Babel and The Flood reinforce her notion and the direction of her thinking.

Update: Mr. Carver asks Pallas Athena of cruelty, revenge, and injustice. He relates the Black man's struggle with Odysseus' as unnecessarily cruel in light of (and here he directs his gaze to the two Gods) greater forces. More simply put, were God and the gods not cruel by nature? Mr. Mondrian refers to homelessness and refugees in terms of Ms. Holliday's questions, and the current question.

Update: Einstein reflects on processes at some length.

Update: The main course is cleared. Dessert and coffee are served.

Update: Sappho, who has been quiet, attempts to find a common thread to the discussion in general, in particular community and woman's ability to direct her fate; or, if not fate, direction. She suggests emotion, a factor not considered important, plays, in fact, an outsized role in woman's "direction," particularly in a reactive way. As an example she refers to the current emotional nature of politics and its effects on the general populace, as well as the individuals emotion in terms of either helplessness or empowerment.

Update: Ms.Gibson suggests emotion and will together define individuals, but emotion without will defines cultures. Mr. Mondrian says culture reflects culture in regards not to will, but history. Mr. Carver suggests history is a reflection of necessity, therefore history, culture, and emotion are one and the same.

Update: Mr. Armstrong suggests a lack of emotion, or hidden emotions, are as powerful as expressed emotions, and that the current display of emotions on the world stage is merely an open expression of what has been felt, and strongly felt, all along. That history, culture, and emotion are a result, in a sense of what Ms. Holliday expressed in terms of community. History, culture and emotion work in communities to serve as framework, or bulwark, depending on how it is perceived, and that the end of community has ended the benefits of community, which is working toward a common end. That, in fact, "The Open Society" is dead, it's death a result of man's ability to outlive his environment's ability to sustain itself. 

Update: The table is cleared. We begin the process of cleaning up. The guests adjourn to another room.