It’s My Birthday

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Everyone I know has been complaining loudly because this summer has flown by. I do not relate as it currently feels like I’m stuck in the eighth week of August with no end in sight.

Alas, it’s only August 14 which also happens to be my birthday.

I’ve had people suggest that I shouldn’t feel bad about my birthday. I don’t.

They say that 49 isn’t so old. Ahem. I agree.

“Next year is the big one,” they say. Isn’t every year a big one?

We don’t get that many birthdays and there’s no knowing how many there will be. Aging is a privilege not afforded to everyone and we should view each new candle on the cake as something positive. Those laugh lines? Reminders of happy days. The white hair I try to disguise? A sign of longevity. The creaky joints and bad knee? Battle wounds.

I have survived. I’m still here telling stories and figuring things out as I go.

I don’t feel pressure to have things figured out by now because I choose to view every day as an opportunity to learn and to do better if I can.

The world is my classroom and it’s a pass/fail grading system. I’m doing ok and I’m exactly where I am meant to be. White hairs, sluggish thyroid and all.

Is this the year I will finally write my book? Is this the year that I start traveling more regularly again? Is this the year I finally win that lottery that I never actually play?

Only if I try.

Trying is hard sometimes. Discipline and focus are hard. Remembering that our place in this vast world is quite small and that we need to earn our keep and maintain perspective is hard. Letting go of the desire to micromanage and to allow the chips to fall where they may is hard.

Today is my birthday. It’s the first day of the rest of my life. It’s also the first day of the rest of yours.

It’s my birthday and I’m inviting you to celebrate. Don’t celebrate my birthday. Just celebrate the day. Go learn something or go somewhere you haven’t been. Find some little diner and treat yourself to a big piece of pie or a dish of ice cream. Or both. Life is short.

Celebrate the first day of the rest of your life. The bank gives us our birthday off so I’ll be out enjoying mine too.

Get To It

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It’s not a classic car but it is a cool motorcycle on the Million Dollar Highway in Colorado. It’s also your Thursday reminder that life is not meant to just be survived. It’s meant to be lived.

So get to work on those evening plans or those weekend adventures!

Bring It With You

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Glass and steel. Light and dark. I appreciate contrasts. Maybe that’s why I like this picture so well.

The place in this picture is a pedestrian walkway just off Chinatown in Washington DC. The orange pieces are 28,000 ribbons hanging down from a sort of pergola. I showed you another perspective shortly after this trip. You can see that image at this link.

I’m not sure why I have been thinking about this place lately. After all, this was a few years ago and the art pieces are certainly long gone by now.

Maybe it s because it was just such a beautiful space that practically glowed with, not just light, but a vibrant explosion of colors that’s hard to explain.

Maybe it’s because it’s just so different than where I live. For someone who happily lives in the country with trees that are bigger than our tallest buildings, there’s something almost mesmerizing about the way this building lights up against the night sky.

This is one of the reasons we travel – because the places we visit became a part of us. They become a part of our memories.

Important travel memories can come from a conversation with a local, an important artifact overhead in a museum, or the smell of fresh donuts at a local bakery. It can also be an early September breeze softly tickling 28,000 ribbons while the glow of electric light makes them seem to explode with color from within.

Don’t just go from Point A to Point B when you travel. Leave the resort. Do something outside your comfort zone. Stop to admire something unfamiliar. Make a memory.

And, on some dreary day years later, pull out the pictures and remember that near magical moment that helped to define that trip. Know that in some way, it helped to reshape a part of you too.

Travel isn’t just going places. It’s bringing those places with you wherever you go.

The Enola Gay

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Meet the Enola Gay. She was named for Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the man who famously piloted this Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bomber during World War II.

On August 6, 1945, Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. and his 11- man crew dropped a highly enriched uranium, explosion-type, “gun-fired,” atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan from this plane. This was the first use of a nuclear weapon in war.

Three days later, another plane dropped an atomic bomb over Nagasaki, Japan.

On August 14, 1945, the Japanese accepted Allied terms for unconditional surrender.

The war was finally over.

I have heard this story so many times in history class, in documentaries, books, and thoughts from my dad the history buff. But I never dreamed I would get to see the Enola Gay in person.

It is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a part of the National Air and Space Museum outside Washington DC. When my Pittsburgh pal and I adventured over to DC a few years ago, we stopped here on our way into the city. It was a good place to see some neat things and stretch our legs after a day in the car.

And, boy, do they have some neat things to see including the Space Shuttle Discovery and some truly unusual aircraft I had never seen before. Yet, nothing else reduced me to a pile of fan girl excitement followed by absolute grief over the power and magnitude of this piece of machinery.

It has been restored so it looks pretty good for its age. And it’s bigger than I imagined so that was kind of cool. You can get a pretty close view of this plane and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would say if airplanes could talk.

Smithsonian museums are world class so never pass up the opportunity to look around one. You never know what famous relic or little told story you might find!

Normality Is A Paved Road

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There’s a quote that is widely attributed to Vincent Van Gogh despite there being no proof he actually said it. It says “Normality is a paved road: it’s comfortable to walk but no flowers grow on it.”

Even if he didn’t say it, I would like to think he might have agreed. Van Gogh today is one of the most famous painters of all time. Even if you aren’t an “art person,” you’ve likely seen Van Gogh’s most recognizable works on everything from calendars and screen savers to phone cases and wallets.

During his lifetime though, Van Gogh struggled. He was born into an upper middle class family but mental illness haunted him and his story ended prematurely thanks to a self inflicted gunshot wound. The impressionistic painter saw no commercial success in his lifetime and yet had such a unique world view his works are among the most moving and timeless you’ll ever see.

The road for Van Gogh was anything but paved and easy. Maybe that’s why he was able to give us flowers and stars and massive skies – things that we all need but don’t always see well for ourselves while we build our lives on whatever road we can carve out.

I have been fortunate to see several of his paintings in person and to do the immersive 3D installation (pictured) when it came to Columbus a few years ago.

His paintings are some of the most easily recognized in a museum and I will always stop in my tracks to admire them. There’s something that feels like they are about to explode out of the frame. They have movement. If you move fast enough, you might catch a falling star or pluck a flower from the vase.

Van Gogh’s life clearly was hard and the commercial success that came in the decades following his death seems bittersweet given that it was too little too late for him. I wish it were easier for him but I’m grateful for all that he accomplished on his life’s road.

Who needs normal when you can have sunflowers? Ask yourself that the next time you feel bad about yourself or want to take an alternate path. Who needs normal? Go do the things that bring you more flowers and stars.

Silent Sunday: Philadelphia Witherspoon Building

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