Thanksgiving '07: Happy Birthday to Me

Thanksgiving was supposedly started as a feast and joyous celebration of making it through another year, of acknowledging the toil and strife and the people that helped us along the way. Lincoln (a personal favorite) made it an official holiday and although it originally was August 6, it now falls in November and this year on my birthday. I am grateful to be born. Life is precious. I am the mother of two adopted children so birth and and the giving of life is monumental in my home despite it's political toolmaking.

I am grateful to my mother for laboring on my behalf despite her secret desire to get back into her size 17-inch waist that I stretched out.

I am grateful to her and my father and my step-father's patience and guidance and complete disregard.

I am grateful that there is life out there for someone who isn't a scholar. I wear my combined 760 SAT scores like a medal around my neck that ANYONE can make it despite being a round, square, gay, alcoholic, liberal, pampered peg in the proverbial square hole of what is the norm.

I am grateful that I am aware of the terrible legacy this generation has created and the wonderful technology that support this apathy.

I am grateful that someone wanted to share his life/heart/mind with me and that we have been able to raise our children in an attempt at our own family and not that we just perpetuated our own family histories.

I am grateful to have arrested and faced down my alcoholism and drug dependency and that my children and their children will not see me in an altered state, other than Idaho.

I am grateful for my friends who choose to know me and secretly see my snarky side and still let me be part of their lives. I am grateful that my children appreciate that I am trying, that I am FAR from perfect (a terrible name for a movie BTW) that I am locating myself while trying to help them locate themselves. I am grateful that there is love around me from them.

I am grateful that I live around trees, that there are books and music and photographs and movies and yes, I am grateful that there is musical theater. I am grateful that my dogs trust me. I am grateful that I trust me.

I am grateful that I can question our government and HATE the policies it is enforcing in my name and still love our country and its great promise. I am grateful to be alive and aware and up at 5a.m. on my birthday. As I was taught or read in the tabloids, I can't remember, that giving is better than receiving I get to give you all a gift. It is one of MY favorite things and it is free:

"Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man (and woman). Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man. And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning hammerblows of conditioning, the free, roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged. It is a sad suicidal course our species seems to have taken.

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for that is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost."

- John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Birthday, Tell the Truth, Make Good Choices.

Comments

[IMPRISONBUSH]

AS a person of HOLLYWOOD A ( NAME GRABER ) YOU SHOULD BE TAKING YOUR VOICE TO THE PEOPLE HELP THEM MAKE THERE VOICES HEARD :
" LIKE A SPEACH TO THE CONGRESS ASKING TO IMPEACH BUSH "
....." INVESTAGATE BEFORE HE LEAVES OFFICE.".

[Balloonman]

Betcha! Loved yer mama. Janet maiden name we the same, whoa!

[longislandlol]

Happy Birthday- you share pearls of wisdom, that no one can ever take away-

[LucianaA]

Jamie Happy Birthday !!!!
Lot's of people are thinking of you on your birthday; I just wanted to let you know I'm one of them. Have a wonderful day!

God Bless you and your family!!!
Smiles and laughter, joy and cheer
New happiness that stays throughout the year
Hope your birthday brings all these and more
Filling life with surprise and joys galore!

I hope all your birthday dreams and wishes come true.

I´m live in Brazil and I like you soooo much!
Love you =)

Luciana

[DietrichMoody]

Jaime Lee Curtis. You certainly have a lot to be grateful for.

I'm glad that you appreciate it, you appear humble and no different than some lady buying her groceries on the isle next to me at Whole Foods. - I appreciate your lack of pretension and you lack the attitude that some of your fellow popular actors of the times have where "think they are in more rarifified and in better air than rest of us citizens" - I HATE that.

Thank you for being you.

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Birthday, Tell the Truth ( I TRY), Make Good Choices (I TRY).

[Phidippides]

Jamie Lee, today I feel thankful. Your post is refreshing, and your childrens' books are delightful. Thanks for taking life by the horns and for sharing with us some of what you've learned while you're here. Happy sobriety, happy birthday, and happy Thanksgiving. I hope all are fulfilling for you and your family and friends.

PS Don't you love Steinbeck?

[rain39]

I am grateful for folks like you, Jamie who help enrich my life, my two adopted kids now in their late 30's who have recently found their biological moms. The discovery of these wonderful women and their wonderful families has enriched our family and added the missing links my kids needed. I am so grateful for my loving husband who actually enjoys my quirks and loves me unconditionally. I thank my now deceased parents for pouring into my the values and early education which enabled me to grab live and run with it. I understand the reasons they were unable to show much affection and love and with the help of others have been able to digest this and let it go. I am so grateful for my first grand child, born this September in Brazil when I was almost 68 just before My Mother died. One soul comes and the other leaves. Living and dying is a blessing.

[mamacat]

The Pilgrims (religious wing-nuts) celebrated Thanksgiving with the indigenous people they were about to push out of the way. Still, the turkey tastes good.

Regarding running away from England (as the Pilgrims did, not the Virginians): after looking at what has been done in our name by Dubya, I wonder if there wouldn't have been something gained by staying with the English, like our Canadian cousins did. Their parliamentary system allows for the removal of unpopular leaders in less than four years. Their new leader has already begun the drawdown of British troops from Iraq, something Mr. Blair and Dubya are unable to do.
The English got rid of slavery way before we did. If we had stayed with them, the Civil War and decades of slavery might have been avoided.
On the other hand, independence afforded Americans the unique chance to experience Thanksgiving Day.
Just kidding. Can anyone imagine having to celebrate Boxer Day? Yech. I'd rather go to war.

[candlewax]

Happy Birthday Jamie. All things must pass and I'm sure your mom thought the trade off from the 17" waist was more than worth it.

I enjoyed your comment about altered states.

Have a nice day.

http://faustmanlab.org/

[Revolutionary56]

Happy Birthday, Jamie Lee! It is so great to be a part of this world, even when we're faced with all the present challenges. I know the fate of the Earth and our species (as well as all other species) is in our hands. Thank God there are people like you around to help spread positive outlook. Cheers to you.

[steelygumby]

My birthday, too! A shout out to all born this day...I was in 4th grade,a brand new age 9, Mrs. Kinney's class at St. Matthew's school in Indianapolis when I heard about JFK. A lot of sadness and a lot of joy in my life and I am SO GRATEFUL for the chance to experience it. It's been a blast so far, even with the last 7 years...

[plages]

Madame, we are extremely grateful for having you, for showing such an appreciation and kindness. . .

Most sincerely . . .

[Countess]

Excellent post! Thanks for putting things in perspective and Happy Birthday!

[rosy1912]

Happy B-day and Happy Thanksgiving. Loved the quote as well.

[CrankyCurmudgeon]

Some blogs are almost like eulogies, in that they make you wish you knew the person about whom they are written. This is one of them. Thank you, Jamie Lee, for your depth and honesty. I wish I knew you and your family; I will settle for reading your blogs . . . and be thankful for that.

I must not so much take issue with Steinbeck, but add that, with the advent of what is being referred to (perhaps for lack of the ability to come up with a creative, descriptive phrase) Web 2.0, individuals can collaborate as never before. I think it empowers the individual to join with others in the act of creation and development.

Happy Givethanksing. Please remember those less fortunate than us.