Invitations

Invite your friend to a feast, but leave your enemy alone;
and especially invite the one who lives near you.

--Hesiod

The next time you put on a dinner, don't just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks.

--Jesus

Jesus' words here are from Eugene Petersen's translation, The Message. Some of the more traditional translations make it sound like Jesus is saying, Give up feasts and spend your time in the soup kitchen. This one is more faithful to the way Jesus actually lived: Bring on the food and the wine and the musicians, and invite the whole town!

Here comes everybody.

--James Joyce