As a culture we tend to obsess about Significant Milestones. The passing of a year, a decade, a century. (Remember Y2K hysteria?) When you come right down to it, as we always do, all the numbers are arbitrary. Calendars are the creations of human beings, not Mama Nature. She does things in her own good time, and we can just whistle if we think we have anything to say about it.
And yet . . . I am a hypocrite.
- While I sailed through my 30th birthday, for some reason 35 gave me a big dope-slap. (We will not discuss the many, many birthdays that have succeeded that shocking 35. After all, they are only numbers . . . but nary a one has stunned me the way 35 did. Go figure.)
- During 2009 I wrote some stories for the Elk Rapids News or the Antrim Review about the 125th anniversaries of various local institutions, and about the 105th birthday of Bellaire resident Doris Brackett. In all those cases I thought, well, that’s pretty impressive when you come right down to it, even if it is just a number.
- During 2009 I passed the ten-year mark in an odyssey of my own, and gave that some considerable thought. I concluded that on the whole it had been a journey from a very bad place to a much better place, though not without pain.
- During 2009 I became obsessed with the stories of the Civil War veterans who came to the north end of Torch Lake after their war was over. I’m not done with that obsession by a long shot, and during the coming Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War you can look forward to (or dread, depending) many more stories about those vets and their families, even if it is just a number.
Miss Sadie, the Cowboy, Miss Puss – they do not know from milestones. They know only whether there are the requisites of Life: Food, Shelter – and the greatest of all the Commandments, that we shall Love our neighbors as we love ourselves. May you have an abundance of all three in the year, and the lifetime, to come.
We hope you’ll come along with us in 2010. Love – truly – from all of us at the Writing Studio and Bait Shop
Miss Sadie, the Cowboy and Gerry . . . and of course Miss Puss
Torch Lake Views 
flandrumhill
January 1, 2010
I think we sometimes fixate on numbers because they’re a tangible that we can measure and set a benchmark for. In so doing we often lose sight of the bigger picture.
The bottom line is that everything other than food, shelter and love is icing on the cake. We all have more to be thankful for than we have the sense to realize.
Gerry
January 1, 2010
That’s true. Of course, I adore icing, on or off the cake, and hope to have much more of it. Or frosting, which is what we called it in northern Wisconsin. (Funny how words shift somewhere around here between the lakes. Bag and sack, for example. I digress.)
p.j. grath
January 1, 2010
Dogs and cats don’t count (numbers), but they do matter–to us! Miss Puss is a strikingly beautiful cat, by the way, as I’m sure you know. (Does she?) I won’t have to count the weeks I’m away, because we will still be connected on your blog and mine. Love to you, too, Gerry. xxxooo
Gerry
January 1, 2010
Let us say that Miss Puss is very secure in her self-image. I’m glad you’re going to keep writing from warmer places than this. (As I contemplate the plunging thermometer, I am trying to keep my chins up.)
Fee
January 2, 2010
Curiosity sent me over from Uphilldowndale (and we know what that can do!) and I love your pictures. That is a bonny cat you have. My own little black moggy is currently tippy toeing around a snowy garden for her daily “five minutes in the fresh air before retreating to the cosy bed”.
Gerry
January 2, 2010
Good morning, Fee! It’s always nice to have visitors from over Mrs. Uhdd’s way. I find curiosity indispensable myself. It hasn’t killed me yet, although there was that incident of the backward slide down a long two-track . . . . Perhaps the saying only applies to cats. I’m glad you find Miss Puss to be a bonny cat, as we would never hear the end of it around here if you had said she was plain. This morning she stepped out the door, looked at a snowy paw in distaste, felt the wind ruffle her fur the wrong way, and demanded to come back in. Fine. It is cold out there. I know, as I just got back from walking the dogs and my ears are tingling.
Anna Surface
January 3, 2010
Lovely kitty, Miss Puss. We have a new kitty that looks similar to her, Tigger the Terrible. LOL
Numbers. You had the shocking 35 and I had the shocking 50. I hadn’t paid much attention to numbers until I turned 50. I put on the brakes but it didn’t do any good and next month I’ll be 51. I had told my mom I hadn’t like turning 50 at all, and she said, “Wait until you turn 70!” LOL Numbers!
I’m looking forward to all you’ll share in 2010 “termed at twenty-ten”. 🙂
Gerry
January 3, 2010
I look forward to meeting Tigger the Terrible, perhaps on a day when it’s simply too cold to go prospecting for images outside, and the photographer’s thoughts turn to indoor wildlife. I suspect all tiger cats have a propensity for misbehavior. (Before she became Miss Puss, the tiny tiger at our house was known as Samantha Pussybrat.)
Our number astonishments could be worse. I know people who grieve over every birthday. That would be boring. Twenty-ten, eh? That sounds like a year with some heft to it. I, too, will be interested to hear what we have to say for ourselves.
La Mirada Bob
January 4, 2010
2010? Look out 85, here I come!
Gerry
January 4, 2010
But DOD – it’s only a number . . . !
I am reliably informed that 85 is the new 75 – this by a friend who insists that we are “somewhere in our thirties.” This is a big year for Big Birthdays amongst the offspring of the Belles. Astonishing how everyone else is getting older all the time.