“Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife
In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, a year in the life?” (Seasons of Love/Jonathan Larson)
To my family, friends; from remember when, to those who have become a part of my experiences in the immediate past leading to the present, I am touched and appreciative of your greetings, well wishes, and statements of happy, and good, Mazol, and magic, regarding my birthday! I at least am not among the 222,000 Americans who have died of Covid, nor as of last week, a statistic within the 8.4 million Americans afflicted with the CORONAVIRUS! Yes, Trump and McConnell and Pence, and Azar, and FOX News, I did indeed get tested, because of my life, and more importantly living a healthy life so my family and friends, the ones who wished me a HAPPY BIRTHDAY, do not have to suffer my consequences of being an idiot, and regarding science and medicine as just too factual, and inconvenient. So here I am on the day after seven decades and a year, able to celebrate my life, my one in which I social distance, wear a mask, get tired of wearing that mask, but do anyway, still follow the directional signals in a Super Market, avoid unnecessary crowds, and understand that NATURE, is not man-made, but man can make understanding NATURE, a viable and livable action.
October 21, 1949, Seventy-One Years ago, the sperm and the egg, finally finished all the necessary paperwork, and a zygote turned into a fetus, and the fetus into a newborn, and chaos, confusion, character, promise, purpose, fate, future, doom, disaster, delight, detours, horizons, hope, happiness, nurture and nature, self-pity, self-esteem, certainty, closet life, outta’ the closet living, intelligence, introspective, intuitive, initiative, and a whole lot being loved, learning how to love, and life had taken shape! One day more as they sang in the musical Les Misérables, and for all the past was worth, my present is just as important…and I will fight the evil forces that want to prevent an equitable and fair future!
