We are having guests for dinner tomorrow night. At seven sharp. A total of twelve. My wife has already been busy with preparations in the kitchen and I was sent to get some bottles of wine.
It is mostly friends of my wife who are coming. She has many more friends than I have. Or at least more of the sort of friends you can invite for dinner. My friends are not the type who needs an invitation. They drop in for coffee or a beer if they are in the neighbourhood and have the time. They are the type who fell their own trees themselves and speak their minds. An interesting and varied lot. A motley crew.
The guests invited are at an altogether different level. They are solving problems at national and international level. Or, to be more precise, they would be if those in power would just listen to them. They are preoccupied with global heating, and they save the animals of the world, while other people are out walking their dogs.
I had planned to invite my Uncle Jack. In fact I had already told him, he could come. When I told my wife, she got furious. "You know we can't have Jack come for the dinner. What will the Jenkinsons and the Smiths think. They are so liberal and broad-minded, and Jack is so conservative."
It is not that my wife don't like Jack. Everybody does. It is just a friendship she wouldn't put on Facebook or invite for dinner.
I told Jack. "Well" he said, "if I have to exchange shared prejudice with others over a glass of red wine, I prefer to do it with a beautiful girl and with a much better wine than the one you normally offer." I could tell that he felt a little bit hurt. But the thing with him is that he soon forgets about things like that.
He is coming over Monday to help me put up my new solar panels. I will buy him a bottle of very fine wine.
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