Drew, party for five?

Hello all!  Tonight I am writing what is, you could say, my first ever "serious" blog post.  In light of Nelson Mandela passing earlier today it brought back a question that I was asked during RA training a few years back: "If you could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would they be?"  I didn't limit myself to only three.  I came up with four almost at the drop of a hat.  This is going to be the first time I have actually said or written down any reasoning behind the four figures I selected.  Without further adieu let's get started.

The reason Nelson Mandela is listed on here first isn't because of his recent passing rather it is because this is probably the only time in his entire lifetime that he has been put first.  He has always put the hopes and dreams of his supporters and country before himself.  He is probably the least selfish human being that I have ever known in my lifetime.  Not only that but after he was released from jail, he was the first black South African to hold the office of President, and the first elected in a fully representative, multiracial election.  He is one of the very few people on this Earth whom I would have a friendly political debate with.  Also, look at that dang smile.  If there is ever a smile that lights up your day, Mandela's is it.

The legend himself, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  Growing up I was taught how to play the piano by my Mother's side of the family so classical music has been a part of my life since I was young.  His music is so uplifting to me and half the time I turn to Mozart and his piano concertos when I am doing homework or am sick of listening to the current generations music.  I can actually thank Mozart for his role in my deep interest in psychology.  My senior year of high school I did my final humanities project on the "Mozart Effect" which was, in short, an effect which figured out if listening to classical music such as Mozart had an effect on studying and in turn, better test results.  I went all out with the project and even brought in a stereo to play some Mozart selections to see if it would work and it did!  Half the class fell asleep to the music but who cares, I had fun doing the research on him and his work anyways!

This one might be the curve-ball of the group.  This is the famous American painter Jackson Pollock.  He was a massive figure in the abstract expressionist movement and is best known for his style of "drip painting".  Despite gaining all this fame he got, he was seemingly one of the most misunderstood painters of a generation.  In my senior year of high school we watched the movie "Pollock" in class and he immediately sparked my interest.  Despite how it looks like he just dipped his paint brush in paint and just flung it all over the canvas, to me it looked like controlled chaos and it really caught my eye.  He was an alcoholic, which unfortunately is the reason it took his life due to a drunk driving accident.  The movie portrayed him in such a way that I felt for him, not bad by any stretch of the imagination but you could just feel the emotion that Ed Harris wanted to portray in his role as Pollock.  I would love to sit down and (ironically and sadly at the same time) enjoy a drink with him because he is a mind that I would love to hear more about.

You can't really guess who this is from a sculpture but this is Alexander III of Macedon, but you might know him as Alexander the Great.  He was the king of Macedonia and was educated by the great Greek philosopher Aristotle.  By the time he was 30 his empire stretched from the Ionian Sea all the way to the Himalayas.  In my eyes, he is the greatest commander to ever grace a battlefield.  So great, in fact, that he never lost once in battle.  What fascinated me the most about Alexander was the cultural diffusion he created by conquering that vast amount of land.  It is incredibly intriguing to read about how him settling some of the Greek colonies resulted in, thousands of years later, a culture that could be seen in the Byzantine Empire in the mid-15th century.  I also have a passion for reading about wars and how they were fought in the ancient era and there is no better man to read about than Alexander.  As I mentioned before, he was undefeated in battle but what really struck my eye was his intense loyalty to his troops.  He ALWAYS led them into battle and led the first charge forward.  He revolutionized speed and maneuvering in battle despite almost always being outnumbered and his fighting spirit was undeniable.


I put a lot of thought into this blog post so I hope you loved reading it!  I would love to know who my readers would invite to a small dinner party so please tell me in the comments below!  Enjoy!