50 years and what to say

10.27.07

Regardless of what has or hasn’t happened in a life, a milestone birthday celebration begs some introspection and calls for a few acknowledgements.

Tonight the intersections of my life come together. You are friends from both places I call home. You are my business partners and my friendly competitors. You are the FOLD, affectionately know as the Fraternal Order of the Looney Dunes. You are my oldest friend from grade school, my first friend from college, the friend who introduced me to John.

And you are my family.

The folks who were there from the very beginning, my parents, Jim and JoAnn Hogan. And my sisters, Janeen and Jody, whose surprise arrival last night stunned me to tears. They all traveled considerable distances to be here.

All sisters have a powerful connection. Mine are no different. We are inescapably connected by our shared memories and experience.

In the small Midwestern town where we shared out youth, we were: The Hogan Sisters. We had a look all our own, always identifiable by our red hair and freckles, and unique in our Irish/Jewish heritage. We stuck out together.

But when I get a microphone in my hand, I’m all Irish though.

I was the good girl and the older sister. Janeen and Jody, not so much. My mother always said the only thing I ever did wrong was not prepare her for them. And on the rare occasion when we were bad together, my Dad who is a master of simile and always had one at the ready announced to us that if he put all our brains together in a knats ass, it would be like a BB rolling around in a boxcar.

Now let me talk about John, the guy who brought me to the Dunes 23 years ago and started us on a lifelong journey together. We’ve marked every important event in our life at Porter Beach, starting with our honeymoon.

And Jake, my other favorite guy, who first visited the Dunes with us at 7 days old, gives me reason to be proud tempered with a few gray hairs.

And I have another sister/friend, Mary Alice, who shares everything but my DNA. She shook some fairy dust and helped put the magic in this night.

My friend Pat Krug whose residence in Dune Acres allowed us to be here in this historic clubhouse.

I’ve said many times before that we all make our way through the tangle of this life by such lights as we can find. Tonight especially, I want to thank every one of you for shining your lights on me.

I am so grateful to be 50. I’ve had enough experience to know now that every day is a gift. This is the point when what is meets what will be.

And I believe that at 50, a room full of people you hold dear, come together to celebrate life is a great triumph.

So let’s raise a glass. The Irish playright Sean O’Casey said this:

Even here, even now, when the sun had set and the evening star was touching night, there were things to say, things to do. A drink first! What would he drink to - the past, the present, the future? To all of them! He would drink to a life that embraced all three of them! Here, with the sun gone down and the calm warning of the evening star left to him, he drank to Life, to all it had been, to what it was, what it would be. Hurrah!