Morning Friend,Recently at the lush and catered "Gala" of my brother-in-law's 50th birthday, I overheard an elderly woman confide to another, how in her lifetime she'd not until lately seen so much preoccupation and "pomp" devoted to one's reaching of 50 years of age.....the "BIG FIVE-O" - to use the vernacular."In my day," the old girl said, "if you reached 90 or 100...THAT was something to make a big deal out of....most EVERYBODY makes it to FIFTY?"I'm certain she was in no way mitigating the gaiety of the event, nor was she tempering her affection for my brother-in-law, - a FINER man of his VAST accomplishments, steely moral fiber and profound faith you will NOT find easily - but was instead commenting generally on our modern society's preoccupation with MILESTONES, particularly the "BIG-O" variety.Now she raised a good point - unless of course she was simply a septuagenarian approaching the "BIG Eight-O" lobbying for a similar fete??? - she nevertheless got me thinking.We DO make mountains out of these milestones as if each DECADE of life is a gargantuan struggle to be trumpeted triumphantly, vanquishing time is a commendable conquest, and birthdays not ending in zero are just "pit-stops" between the "BIG" ones.Well, as usual my Monday Mind woke up with a contradictory spin on it today and I'd like to suggest that there are FAR more significantly commendable birthdays in life than the big "O" 's?Anyone who's witnessed the perilous and precarious day to day life of a toddler has seen a truly adventurous, daunting and awe-inspiring "life on the edge"....crashes, gashes, falls, bumps and tumbles....mystifying discovery and horrifying fear..... near maimings, poisonings and head trauma.To see first hand, a child emerge relatively UNSCATHED after a head over heels plunge down a flight of stairs is to fully understand the adage, "God looks after drunks and small children".To witness the explosion of growth, the flowering of knowledge and the unfathomable wonder of a growing child in a world so fraught with danger, is like watching exquisite pottery being shaped on a mystical wheel by loving, Heavenly hands... in a hurricane !To share, to guide and to protect a life so precious is to breathe for a time the air of omnipotence, to hear for a time the Siren song of boundless youth and to be for a time a surrogate Angel of God.THESE, my friend, are the bold and brave conquerors of time and survivors of space whose birthdays should be HERALDED with all the pomp and circumstance, froth , finery, joy and salutations apropos on the "BIG 1" or the "BIG 2", "3", etc.These truly "BIG" occasions are the call for "irreverent reverence" - balloons and streamers and cake and pop and games and music and "controlled" mayhem shared with cherished celebrities, special guests ( and even a clown or two?).No offense to the "Big-0" crowd with their..."Two-0...teen no more","Three-0...fun's over","Four-0...gettin' old","Five-0...crisis time","Six-0...pension time", or"Seven-0...REALLY old"....As far as I'm concerned, once you've run out of fingers to display your age then it's time to leave the REAL birthday partying to those who DESERVE and so enthusiastically appreciate it.Many "Big-0" parties I've attended were more "excuses for drunkenness" than "tributes to longevity", ( EVERYONE was a "clown"! ) and having seen more than one impaired reveler take a tumble down some stairs and emerge "relatively" uninjured, I again witnessed the Good Lord's affinity for inebriates and infants.I don't mean to take the "bloom off the rose" of anyone whose lives ARE marked by 10-year blocks of personal growth and development and are WORTHY of special recognition. ( My brother-in-law Marv is a Father, a Surgeon, a Marathoner and an accomplished musician for example!)I just don't believe that simply "surviving" or "existing" for a number of years constitutes the need for a "celebration"?I believe that a person is "as young as their dreams...and as old as their fears".For me, June 20, 2005 is my "real" birthday because that is the day I said goodbye to fear forever and began to dream every night like a kid at my own BIG party, with balloons and streamers and EVERYTHING!!!!And with the Good Lord's continued assistance, the love and support of my family, and the DAILY vigilance and required application of this new way of living, MY next "Big-0" might simply be conspicuous as the SUM of many fruitful, beautiful, and delightfully cherished days.In the meantime....I'm 1302 today.But I don't look a day over 40! HA!"Happy Birthday to Me....."Love tImMy:/
"Laugh as much as you breathe,
and Love as long as you live." ( your dream)
