36: 1

No, not my age, but a set of questions that I saw in The Guardian that are designed to produce intimacy ('love' they say).

I'll give my answers to those questions that I can (some need to be answered in a pair, so I'll have to skip those) over the next few months, the label will be '36', if you want to look at them together.

1. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?

The temptation here is to give the Sunday School answer: why, Yeshua, of course. So, I'll not do that.

In the media, this question is supposed to be answered with the name of some famous, but ideally, somewhat 'specialised' and obscure...so 'cool' famous, person whose mention makes one seem very cultured, special, exclusive...I'm not going to do that either.

I'd choose one of my close and oldest friends...that's who I would want as a dinner guest.

I wonder what people think they'd do if they met some exalted famous person; probably ask 'what's it like to be famous'! Fame feeds itself in media land, but omits that relationships are not for entertainment or selfish gratification, but for fellowship: togetherness.

But what to say if you do meet someone really famous?

A friend related to me that he met one of the major figures in his field: James Watson was speaking at a seminar in Australia that my friend was attending. Most people were overawed by Watson, but when my friend found himself standing near Watson he simply asked how his trip to Australia had been. That started a conversation.