The third dinner guest

Which three people, living or dead, would you invite to dinner?

For some time, I had been sure about the first two, George Washington Carver and Barbara Kingsolver. But I was stumped for the third guest.

"Who would you invite to dinner?" isn't exactly the same question as "Who is your hero?". There are some expectations of dinner guests - to show up more or less on time, while the food is hot; to participate (listening and talking) in conversation with the other guests; to eat (or at least more or less politely rearrange on their plate) the food that is offered. Hosts have responsibilities, too: to provide some sort of reasonably edible meal, to gather reasonably compatible people, to respond graciously to any unexpected events. So fitting that third guest into an existing intimate gathering is not trivial (even with neglecting such traditions of dinner guest etiquette such as equal numbers of men and women, and not inviting only one of a married couple).

Today, I realized who the third guest would be: Clarence Jordan.


The menu:
sweet tea
chicken satay with peanut sauce
blackeyed peas
hot buttered corn bread
home made fresh peach ice cream