[Magdalen] Throwing a Cr*ppy Dinner Party

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

Oh, I am alll about welcoming everybody, and not bothering too much about
preparations; I was merely observing that some folks genuinely gain joy out
of the preparation, and there's nothing wrong with that.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 5:06 PM, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 3:53 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford
> <oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Mind you, a lot of folks gain a tremendous joy from putting together a
> > feast and then get incredible joy from seeing others enjoying it. And
> > there's *nothing* the matter with that.  Many of my earliest memories of
> > celebrations were of this sort.
>
> I've enjoyed some memorable ones that had me in awe of how effortless
> it seemed; of course, it was huge work beforehand, and the host(s) set
> a fine, relaxed atmosphere at the time of the event. Can't be that
> relaxed unless all the preparation was done well.
>
> To me, the message of the "Crappy Dinner Party" is not so much an
> actively bad "Come on over to our dump of a house and have some of
> whatever garbage we can dig out of our freezer!" than "We really would
> like to see our friends and won't wait for a perfect time to do
> something fancy." Not really "crappy," but comfy and forgiving of
> imperfection. Enjoying the real-life everyday style.
>
> What's the proverb about not letting the perfect prevent the good? I'm
> not remembering the wording. Don't let the (perhaps temporary)
> impossibility of achieving perfection cancel out the striving for the
> good, and the pretty good, and even the sloppy but enjoyable in its
> own way.
>
>
> --
> Scott R. Knitter
> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
>