Chapter 19

The dinner meeting

The room was comfortably large and protected against the spring chill, with a fireplace at one end having a bed of coals as well as a small flame slowing eating the modest logs within. While winter was over, the night temperatures as well as the reassurance a warm hearth brings dictated this addition to raise the ambience to a amiable level.

An overstuffed couch fronted this space, with side tables and stuffed chairs on each end, plus another coffee table in front, between it and the glowing fireplace hearth.

A large circular table held the center of the remaining space of the room, set up with several place-settings and surrounded by oak chairs in a traditional design, with curved tops and spindled backs.

Lighting was indirect, directed at the ceiling, which was curved and a non-glare white. This was above the paneled walls with curtain-framed windows showing only the dark pastoral setting, stars twinkling in the night sky along with highlighted areas above the peripheral woods showing the presence of distant cities.

Smells of various hot drinks flavored the room, originating from the small buffet - covered dishes were also here, on top of electric ceramic pads designed to hold their heat for longer periods should the conversation preclude the otherwise on-schedule dinner.

A paneled door opened, with Pita, Phil and then Dr. Winston entering the room. Laughing at some joke one had told outside, they were all smiling at the punch line. They paused to take in the spread and layout. Phil moved to the fireplace to stand in front, warming his backside, while Dr. Winston moved to inspect the buffet, lifting each lid to see and smell the contents. Pita moved to the bar to refresh her caffe-mocha as much as to see the other drinks available and look at the matching design motif in the various parts of the tablesettings, smiling in approval.

Phil: "So, doctor, what's the reason we're all here? Any ideas?"

Dr. Winston: "You know as much as I do, Phil. Herbert simply said we needed to get together and compare notes. I certainly didn't expect such a layout for just the three of us, but I see the table is set for more."

Pita: "But all beautifully laid out. I had some ideas along these lines at various times, but never got a chance to create them - certainly not to this detail. Even the inscriptions on the forks and spoons integrate with the designs on the centerpiece. Hey, these are even in the woodcarvings around the top of the room. See, right there below the lights."

Phil: "I just like the room as its completely functional and well set up. That couch is heavy enough to hold an elephant, but looks comfortable enough to encourage an instant nap."

Pita flounced down on its cushioned surface, balancing her drink carefully and smiling,"You got that right. Like one of those modern mattresses which feel like a feather bed without the quills."

Dr. Winston moved to the padded chair on the right of the couch and Pita. He had also refilled his drink and licked a finger after having sampled that evening's cuisine. "Well, good taste does seem to be the common factor to this room and layout. I completely agree that this was very well thought out."

Phil: "Did you notice how the walls aren't actually straight, but bow out toward the center of the room, more like a truncated oval? Nice effect, plus it makes our voices less echoey. Probably more efficient to heat as well."

Pita: "There's an Amerindian lodge effect, probably merging several of the various 'primitive' cultures with a modern style. But the whole is carried off very well, with the color of the wood paneling and other decor effects. Even the hoop rug which covers the bulk of the space is the same color scheme, with all the accents which keep it subdued but not dull."

Dr. W: "To be sure this is all interesting to you to, but I would return to the original question, 'Why are we here?'"

Phil: "Herbert must need something designed. That's the usual reason we are called."

Pita: "Some color choices, some artistry must be required...", she trailed off in thought.

Dr. W: "But I am called on usually for philosophic or psychological subjects. My office certainly doesn't depict the height of style or functionality - I know nothing of these subjects comparative to my use at more academic work."

Phil: "OK doc, so what do we have in common?"

Interrupting that thought, the door opened again, this time to admit Roger. He smiled quietly at all his old friends being in one room. "Hi, Pita - Phil. Dr. Winston - long time since we've talked at any length."

Pita rose to move to the side bar, "Drink, Roger - it's all safe, nothing alchohic."

Roger: "Thanks, how about some apple cider? I've never found alcohol to be a very logical choice overall."

Pita: "That's for sure - ever tried to design with a hangover? Certainly flattens out the muse for awhile..."

Phil: "Much less being able to do any sort of precision joinery or machining, kind of dangerous to your fingers and all."

Dr. W: "We were just wondering how we came to be here. Hadn't come up with much of a conclusion so far."

Roger moved to the couch, "It seems Herbert wants to compare viewpoints, to discuss the various factors he's been going over recently. Lots of changes in his life; not uncommon to call upon his local support group to sort things out..."

Dr. W: "Or summarize them. Your logic points to his concerns recently, this big shift he's just done."

Roger: "Precisely. How has he been taking it?"

Pita had moved to the other padded chair, shifting her drink from the coffee table to her side table. "Seems he's doing OK now. Had it rough for a little while."

Dr. W: "Those were some tough choices. I could see that they were going to take their toll on his certainty. Self-image is rather difficult to sort through some times. Too close to home."

Phil: "But he has all these abilities to use. He can build all sorts of things and is still physically strong, healthy..."

Pita: "...as well as all this training in graphic arts and computers. He can do so much."

Roger: "But the direction one chooses limits the choices one can make. He has to fit within the culture he is to be part of."

Dr. W: "That culture was the one he originally left, but compared his adopted, West Coast, cult culture with."

Roger: "Precisely. He couldn't take the faulty logic of it. However, that wasn't his only reason, it was just one tool to use."

Pita: "Surprising coming from you. I thought logic could stand on its own as a method of sorting out just about anything."

Roger: "You might have missed me including the chaos factor in my calculations. That's why I have a lava lamp like yours - to remind me that life has a certain random factor in it, beyond any simple logical deduction or induction. Any equation about life has to ultimately result in a fuzzy logic decision."

Dr. W: "There is that point, one which seems to be missed by most academia I know. They seem to constantly work at simply building up and supporting their own views of life, altering their main arguments only in minor degrees, spending the bulk of their career pushing this one point home."

Phil: "Kinda like whittling it down to make it fit, eh? Any square peg will fit in a round hole if you cut enough off."

Pita, laughing: "That certainly is a good analogy. But reversely, any amount of different colors added to each other usually just results in a non-descript brown. Keeping to a key color in any design will ensure that the rest of it can be made complementary or accents."

Dr. W: "That's the point Herbert had to confront. What key color, key theme was going to drive his life. All that time spent in LA had been under a certain view, a certain thrust which proved false in its basic premise and was becoming stifling."

Phil: "But in this case, you can't just pull out a can of paint and change the color."

Dr. W: "True. He had actually, using the same metaphor, been scraping away at the layers of paint which covered the statue until he got to the underlying material, which wasn't solid gold as he was told, but rather a hollow plaster piece. But the real culprit was himself. He was the one who made that statue and painted it. Sure, Rhino and the Center kept telling him the great stories and kept him fed and clothed while he worked for nothing. But he was the one who stayed there. So he couldn't just run away and be bitter without looking at all this."

Roger: "The heart of reason is humility. Socrates said it through Plato as, 'the life which is unexamined is not worth living.' So Herbert has undertaken a very noble and difficult cause - to sort out his own life and his own responsibility for creating it as it was."

Pita: "Another Greek tragedy? Surely he's too optimistic to go the way of Socrates - and Plato didn't have it much easier."

Dr. W: "More that he is averting the tragedy of wasting his talent and future on not knowing what he could have done otherwise, but could see what he was heading toward unless he changed course."

Pita: "And our part in this was to help him avoid a true tragedy of another wasted life?"

Dr. W: "You could say that we did our part in this. Herbert has always had the lion's share of work to do."

Phil: "But we aren't any strangers to hard work ourselves. Not like we get paid overtime for the extra thought and effort we put into things. I can recall several sleepless nights working out the details to something we were building..."

Pita: "...and the midnight or early morning flash of inspiration which had to be sketched out or noted down before it disappeared into the ether..."

Roger: "...or time spent during meals sorting through the exact procedures and consequences to actions, much as a chess master would keep working out all the possible and then most probable combinations until the one move would present itself."

Dr. W: "Yes, all these and more. We've done our parts to help him change his life and turn it into another direction - one which seems to be something he wants and will benefit him the most."

The room was silent for a bit. Phil added another stick of wood to the fire and raked the coals together to start it flaming again. The others sipped their drinks and contemplated this.

Pita finally broke the quiet, "He has his new portfolio now and it looks quite good - very impressive."

Phil: "And that CD with it really shows off his skills."

Roger: "The plans he has made are within error parameters, given the data he is working on."

Dr. W: "I, too, am optimistic that he has everything he needs to succeed with. Certainly we have every right to be proud of him and what he's done. I can't say I know anyone he's dealt with whose taken this much effort to reconcile his future and his past to make a seamless tapestry, to salve old wounds and sort the facts out so that he can make peace within himself as well as with others who haven't seen the views, walked the walk, dug the data out which he has. That would be his main accomplishment - one which isn't hung up like a parchment scroll with a gold seal, or sat ticking in a glass case as an example of precision, or displayed like war medals, racing trophies or fencing scars. It is the unsung which has the most lasting benefit to the individual, his own sense of self-worth, quite regardless of whether anyone else ever recognises it.

"That is the basic point we all have - that we know we did our best and can live with our errors as well as our successes. The difference between the sour man and the happy man is just that - they look or don't look at their own life, take an honest stock of it and make the changes they need to in order to create the most optimally-lived life they can with the resources they have.

"So cheers, my friends. We are well on a good, straight, wide road now. Good travels to all of us."

He raised his glass as did the others and drank to Herbert and to themselves.

At this point the door opened and Herbert strode in, smiling from ear to ear. "Boy it's great to see you all! Sorry I'm late, I got stuck into unpacking some things and organizing the place so we can get started on our next projects. Boy, do they look interesting and exciting!

"Hey, I'm starved. Looks like nothing got cold. Since we're all here, I guess we can get started. I'd like to work over our plans again, but first, let's eat."

So the room of friends made their way to the buffet, picking their plates off the table and happily started filling these with the succulent feast which had been prepared.

The room remained busy far through the night, long after the meal had been satisfactorily consumed, laughter sprinkled among the spirited conversation until the day began dawning again.