Today We Are Five

Five years ago today, I kicked off this blog with an article about my trip to Scotland that featured the pictures shot while I was there.  One of the most striking places was Glen Croe.  I had a good picture taken while there, but found this one on line recently that captured even more of the dramatic landscape of this part of the Loch Lomand and  Trossachs National Park.  If you get to Scotland, this an unbelievable area for all sorts of adventures in nature and here you can "Rest and Be Thankful".

Glen Croe as seen from Rest and Be Thankful shot by Richard Harvey November 2006

Other momentous events that occurred on this day in history:

1944 - D-Day Invasion by allied troops on the beaches of Normandy, France

1966 - Miranda Rights established by Supreme Court Decision

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in the court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?

1967 - Thurgood Marshall   Appointed to Supreme Court

1975 - Number One Country Hit courtesy of Linda Ronstadt




Born On June 6

1599 – Diego Velázquez, Spanish painter (d. 1660)

1756 – John Trumbull, American painter (d. 1843)

1799 – Alexander Pushkin, Russian poet (d. 1837)

Unforced, as conversation passed,
he had the talent of saluting felicitously every theme,
of listening like a judge supreme
while serious topics were disputing,
or, with an epigram - Surprise
of kindling smiles in ladies eyes.

1952 – Harvey Fierstein, American actor and author of one of my favorite plays/movies:  Torch Song Trilogy

            though most might be more familiar with this character from Hairspray

Let the celebration begin - You Can't Stop The Beat (side note:  If you are a Glee fan, you might recognize the love interest in the white suit).

Blogaversary

A year ago, I started this blog as a way to reach out to others while keeping brain and fingers well exercised. The column below is among the first that appeared, and it seems appropriate today. Enjoy the trip down memory lane.

WHAT IS AGE?

The calendar tells me that I am 62. There are days when the body agrees. Most of the time as long as I don't go anywhere near a mirror, I think I'm 36. See the picture above taken a quarter of a century ago. It was a wonderful year so I chose to freeze in that state. There is nothing that makes me sense physically, mentally or emotionally that I am beyond that age.

I can tell myself that the hair is grey. I can step on a scale and groan with dismay, but when the mirror and the scale are gone, that picture is me. The only place I feel old is in the reflection of other peoples eyes. They see me as I appear, not as I am.

Rodin did a sculpture, "She who used to be the beautiful Heaulmiere". Robert Heinlein remarked about this sculpture that it takes a genius to look at what is and see the person behind the reality. Heaumiere was always 18. That the facts said that her breasts drooped, that her stomach hung, that her cheeks and jowls were sagging over the bones was unimportant. To herself she was a young and beautiful girl. In the movie "All that Jazz", the central character on his way through a hospital ward stops off in the room of an elderly, semi-conscious woman and gives her a passionate kiss to which she responds in kind and for a few moments you believe that she is young.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm a few years younger than my own children. Fortunately, they have inherited their mother's total disregard for the years. Welcome to joy and experience and adventure ... the future is a wonderful thing to view and I have a lifetime to enjoy it all.