“HAPPY HAPPY” TO ALL OF YOU!

A few lines from a recent article in the Los Angeles Times caught my eye. Actually it was an obituary, a beautifully written one, for the great actor Peter O’Toole. A man, whom by all appearances, lived very wide. As well as long.

“Once a thing is solidified it stops being a living thing. That’s why I love the theater. It’s the Art of the Moment. I’m in love with ephemera and I hate permanence,” he said.

While most of us check our safety nets every morning lest we fall from the high wire act of the day, he seemed to relish the ever-present potential for disaster. Or exhilaration. Knowing full well those moments come and go… A big theater, this life is, and we, the actors get to play our roles, steal a scene or two, disappear into the story, take a bow. For a while.

And now the winter solstice has come and gone. Barely. So has Thanksgiving and Hanukkah. Christmas and New Years will soon be memories too, melting into the ones that came before.

Of course we want the good things to last. Our love affairs and friendships and families. The great job. We wish each other good health. We want our body parts to keep on going and going just like the Ever-Ready Bunny.

And conversely we want the lousy stuff to go away.  And sometimes it does…sometimes it doesn’t. The love affair that goes from good to crazy. The friendship that suddenly changes sides. The toxic aunt who broadcasts bad news like a radio station. The job that sucks the life force from you. The achy knees, allergies, the chronic this or that, the bummer diagnosis. Be gone…

But Peter O’Toole, the actor, had the gumption to honor all that which does NOT last. Which is fleeting. A wise man, indeed, because it does appear that everything is fleeting. And SO precious.

Gotta love this great big ephemeral life! “Happy Happy” to all of you…