I have a birthday coming up. For those of you who don't have it recorded in your snappy Palm Pilots or scribbled on your quaint little calendars, it's Saturday the 17th. Capricorn (grounded), Aries rising (fiery), Cancer moon (loving). Born at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn on a snowy Sunday morning, I'm the only shiksa I know to have the Star of David embossed on her birth certificate (that's right, BSW, I'm honorary). The OB's name was Dr. Gergely, which is probably why he got into the baby delivery business. It was that or product development for Listerine. I was 8 pounds even, 21 inches long. The umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck as I emerged, and I had hiccups. When Mom saw me for the first time, she said my eyes looked like bluebirds.
When I was 8 years old, my godmother Yuriko advised me never to tell anyone how old I was, because that's how people would then view me. She assured me no one ever gets past that information. Such advice at such a tender age had little resonance for me. Now, of course, I see her wisdom. Most people need frames of reference, and age is usually the first question they ask about another human being. That's fine, I guess...but most people also allow the frame to upstage, even obscure, the actual work of art. When beautiful, lithe yoga instructor Yuriko turned 50, those who knew her actual age couldn't quite believe she'd been on the earth for half a century. In response to the phrase, "Wow (or Damn), you don't look 50," she borrowed a line from Coco Chanel: "This is what 50 looks like."
You who really know me know I am not my age, and don't look it (whatever "it" is!). For that, I credit the blessing of good genes, possessing the body, mind, heart and soul of an artist, quitting smoking, drinking and drugs, not consuming megacarbs, lots of sunscreen...and making the choice of right attitude. After all, the body is merely a vehicle for the soul and the mind and the heart. All of which are in fine tune these days...and I couldn't ask for a better present than that.
OK, a DVD/VCR combo, a digital camera and a new sound system would be very nice.
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