Happy 9th, Avalyn!

i will tell you, my daughter
of your worth
not your beauty
everyday.  (your beauty is a given, every being is born
beautiful)
knowing your worth
can save your life.
raising you on beauty alone
you will be starved.
you will be raw.
you will be weak.
an easy stomach.
always in need of someone telling you how beautiful you 
are.

nayyirah waheed

To my toothy-grinned, athletic, brave, compassionate, loving, hyper, now Harry Potter obsessed girl, the happiest of birthdays. It seems like just yesterday we brought you home, and now you’re in your last single-digit year. 

We love you more than you can know. May you continue to grow in grace and love. And may you have many more happy returns. 
 

Superman @ 84

Superman turned 84 yesterday, marking the anniversary of the publication of Action Comics #1 on April 18, 1938.  The series has been rebooted, the costume has changed and changed back, and Superman has died and come back (a few times), but the first superhero is still being published monthly and still fighting the never ending battle.

And boy do we need him now more than ever.

Think about it.  Everything Superman stands for seems to be under attack.

"To best be in a position to use his amazing powers in a never-ending battle for truth and justice, Superman has assumed the disguise of Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper."

The American Way was later added to Superman's fight, making the better-known phrase "Truth, Justice, and the American Way."

But what is truth when unpopular realities can be dismissed as "fake news" or a documented record can simply be denied.  When the images we see must be evaluated for their level of manipulation.  When scripted dramas are passed off as reality television.  What is truth when feelings and opinions matter more than facts.

What is justice when it seems to be applied unevenly at best.  When the color of ones skin can be the difference in a business meeting in a coffee shop and an arrest at a coffee shop or between life and death in a traffic stop.  When antisemitic, white power, and alt-right groups are on the rise.  When the gender pay gap still exists.  When affluenza is a recognized condition.  What is justice if it is not blind.

What does the American Way mean anymore.  Especially when our country is as fractured as it is.

Sadly, even the "reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper" part is going away in our society.

Superman has always existed to be our ideal.  The hero of heroes.  The greatest.  He has been a social-justice warrior before the term ever existed (look back to those initial comics where he was beating up slum lords and corrupt business men).  The Blue Boy Scout.  A father figure figuratively and literally.  The leader of gods and men.

He has been portrayed as a Messiah figure of late, though that is a little misguided in my opinion.  He is much more of a representation of Moses, the leader-deliverer.  A child sent away in a vessel, raised by adopted parents who discovers his heritage and becomes a leader and inspiration.  An important distinction given the heritage of Siegel and Shuster, two Jewish kids growing up in the Depression, with a war raging in Europe.  Into these dark times, these two guys created a beacon of hope.  A strong man who could stop all the bullies and protect the little guy.

Over time, Superman's character continued to solidify.  Powers and weaknesses came and went; some of them very, very strange.  But the core of the character remained.  Superman is honest, fair, and decent.  He is a paragon of virtue who knows and does what is right.  He is the strongest one there is, but uses that strength to protect only, not to intimidate or bully.  Strength with responsibility.

And through the years, we have seen him bubble to the surface when he is needed.  Christopher Reeves fully embodying the character more than any other actor, making us "believe a man could fly."  More than any actor, Christopher Reeve gave the character a lightness, a comfort in his own skin than shone brightly through the screen.  The movies may be a little corny and only two of the four really work, but there is no denying the sincerity of the portrayal that would define the character.

It's that character we need again.  Not the struggling, near-objectivist protagonist present in the more recent Warner Brothers films.  

We need that paragon, that beacon of hope to inspire us again.  The example that causes us to find a better way.  That figure that causes us to lift our heads and look...

Up in the Sky!

40

The big 40 today. It has been a very good start to this new year for me.  Time with Jamie’s family leading into it. And with good friends the week before. FaceTime with my family today and a lot of good goodies delivered to my door. And quality relaxing time with Jamie and the kids. 

I had thought of making this post a list of 40 things I’ve learned or some such. Instead, I think I’ll just take the opportunity to say thank you. To everyone who posted on the page, to everyone who texted or called, to everyone who Jamie got to write an email or note passing along your memories and wisdom, thank you. 

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your well wishes. For your thought and prayers. For your friendship. For your time. For being there. 

Thank you for being a support in times when needed. For being a kick in the pants when that was called for too. 

In America especially we like to think that the it’s still possible to be the lone wolf.  The rugged individual in need of no one, pulling one’s self up by their boots straps. 

But the truth is, I am who I am because of all of you. And for all you added to my life. 

I tried to thank everyone who posted on Facebook, adding likes to the comments on other people’s posts and commenting back to those who posted on mine. If I missed anyone, I apologize and please accept my thanks. 

It has been a great day, and hopefully the start of a great new year. I look at what all 39 brought and all the changes we went through. We are in such a different and better place now.   I’m just excited to see what is next. 

Again, thank you all. I love you and goodnight. 

Happy Birthday Mom!

I share this picture a lot, largely because it’s one of my favorites. My mom and I many years ago now.  I love it because it shows a bond we’ve shared throughout the years, there from the beginning.

We’re connected in so many ways. Mom and first born. Mom and son. And in having back to back birthdays.  This last one was a situation where having similar tastes in cakes really worked out. 

It’s been different not getting to celebrate together, but we make the best of it.  And we know that our hearts are connected no matter the physical distance.

To Mom, I hope you have a wonderful day. I hope it has been bright and wonderful. And I can’t wait until we can celebrate together again. 

We miss you, we love you, and we wish you all the best!

Happy Birthday Mom!

39

39 today.

That's hard to believe.  It's the kind of number that can be a bit intimidating.  That can require a bit of reflection and thought.  That keeps you adding "and holding" to your description of the age.

And with some of the other life changes that have happened this year, it could be a bit of a downer.  A what have you done with your life moment.

But not for me.

Instead, I think of Stan Lee.

In 1961, Martin Goodman directed Stan Lee to create a comic book series about a team of superheroes.  Lee who had served editor-in-chief and art director, as well as a dozen other roles in his two decades at Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, was a bit burned out of comics at the time.  Lee was ready to call it quits.

Lee was ready to head to novels, to magazines, something.  But he listened to the advice of his wife, Joan, who suggested that he write at least one comic the way he would want to write it, not the way it had been done before.  Lee was then “determined to carve a real career for myself in the nowhere world of comic books,” noting that “for just this once, I would do the type of story I myself would enjoy reading … And the characters would be the kind of characters I could personally relate to: they’d be flesh and blood, they’d have their faults and foibles, they’d be fallible and feisty, and - most important of all - inside their colorful, costumed booties they’d still have feet of clay.” 

Now there are the disagreements as to how much input was Lee’s and how much was penciler Jack Kirby’s.  Regardless, the resulting combination proved to be a smash success, though quite unexpected.  Lee had felt ready to leave, but the positive reviews persuaded him to stay on.  It would be his most defining creation, in combination with the Silver Surfer, which launched fromthis comics magazine.   He would go on to maintain a 102 issue collaboration with Kirby, on this the “World’s Greatest Comics Magazine.”    Lee’s contribution, treating characters as human as opposed to ideal archetypes, would become the standard for the industry.  

From here, Lee would become a fixture in the comic scene.  His engagement with the readership in letter columns and in his Soapbox column build a great sense of community with fans and creators.  He introduced credits to the comic pages for not just the writer and penciler, but inker and letterer as well. 

Lee would be editor in chief, head writer, and show runner for the majority of the 1960s Marvel line.  He pioneered the pop culture of today.  And his impact extended beyond his tenure at the company.  He remained comics elder statesmen and the self-proclaimed greatest cameo artist of all time.  He was Uncle Stan.  

And the event that launched this career and fame.  The year that started the pop culture phenomenon known as Marvel.

Lee wrote that when he was 39.

The great success of Lee’s career didn’t start until Lee was 39. 

It was that point where he started following where his muse led him.  He didn’t change fields, didn't really even change jobs, he just finally released himself from the trappings of the past, from doing things someone else’s way.  

With all that is going on, I take solace in his life and story.  With the idea that there’s no magic number as to when your life really takes off.  It’s not that things weren’t good before, it’s just that it can always still take off at any point.

With the idea that this career transition, whatever it entails, could be the start of the absolute best part of my life.  The most fulfilling part.

And that’s exciting to me.

Here’s to 39.

Here’s to that kind of life-changing, universe-defining, creatively fulfilling opportunity.  

Excelsior! 

Happy Birthday, Disneyland!

To all who come to this happy place:

Welcome.

Disneyland is your land.

Here age relives fond memories of the past - and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future.  Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America - with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.

Walt Disney, July 17, 1955

Sixty-four years ago today, Disneyland opened its doors for its first visitors.  A special “International Press Preview” event was held, only open to invited guests.  Six thousand invitations were mailed, but by mid-afternoon, over 28,000 ticket holders were headed for Disneyland.  

Even as the gates opened, workmen were still planting trees.  Paint applied earlier that morning was still wet to the touch and asphalt poured that morning on Main Street was so soft that women’s heels were sinking in.  

Southern California was suffering from a record heat wave with temperatures over 100 degrees.  Drinking fountains were dry, rides broke down shortly after opening, and many places ran out of food and drink.   The park would even suffer a gas leak in Fantasyland, causing Adventureland, Frontierland, and Fantasyland to close for the afternoon. This would leave only a very anemic Tomorrowland and Main Street USA open.

To top it off, everything was being filmed.  All of the opening day festivities, including the dedication and a parade, were being covered by ABC with a 90 minute live special, ‘Dateline Disneyland’, hosted by Art Linklater, Ronald Reagan, and Bob Cummings.  With ninety million viewers watching, the program had its own errors, miscues, and magic in trying to capture the event on live television.  Missed camera cues, bad reception.  You name it.  As Linklater would try to describe it, “This is not so much a show, as it is a special event.  The rehearsal went about the way you’d expect a rehearsal to go if you were covering three volcanoes erupting at the same time, and you didn’t expect any of them.  So, from time to time, if I say, ‘We take you now by camera to the snapping crocodiles in Adventureland,’ and instead, somebody pushes the wrong button, and we catch Irene Dunne adjusting her bustle on the Mark Twain, don’t be too surprised; it’s all in fun and that’s what we’re here for.”

Needless to say, it was a less than auspicious start.  

And yet, Walt's little park has bloomed into an international vacation destination and become the crown jewel of an international collection of parks, rated among some of the most attended tourist destinations in the world.  

So, if you ever need a reminder that your beginning does not dictate your ending, think of Disneyland's birthday.  

To quote Mary Poppins, "There's no where to go but up"