On the Eve of 40

Eh, everyone knows that 40 is the new 30 according to our anti-aging obsessed society. Hey, I confess to having been seduced into the regular use of eye gels and creams years ago…and despite my husband’s love of grey hair…I prefer the burgundy black cherry of Feria…LOL Though I think in a few years I will have a head of rich platinum-silver hair.

Yup, 40 years…born the year MLK (Martin Luther King) was assassinated. For many years I believed that MLK was very much alive when I was…and I was saddened to learn I missed a shared time with him by 5 months.

Turns out 1968 was an intense year. Just 2 months after MLK was murdered (April 4th), RFK (Robert F. Kennedy) was also assassinated, on June 8, 1968. There was a time when the Summer and Winter Olympic s were contested every 4 years in the same year. The year of my birth the Winter Olympics were held in Grenoble, France and the 19^th Olympiad was held in Mexico City, Mexico in October. This is the same Olympics which produced the iconic image of two medal winning runners with their arms raised in the black power salute.

The year of my birth was also rife with the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War raged on, and Richard Nixon was elected president. Pope Paul VI published Humanae Vitae, condemning birth control, and the day before my birth, 150 women protested the Miss America pageant as exploitative. It’s any wonder I turned out to be a pretty intense young woman.

To me the 40 years I have lived up to this moment appear to have passed in the blink of an eye. And now I am here, hoping to live my next 40, with my eyes, mind, heart and soul wide open to all the joys, sorrow, pain, and happiness that may come my way.

+x*
Love & Peace