Born on 9/11

Another anniversary of the day that change the world, at least for me -- I plopped out at 7 pounds and 11 ounces after a long protracted birth in the early hours of a September morn.

As my mother was fond of telling the story: I was born in a small hospital in the mountains of California. So small, in fact, their single surgery doubled as the delivery room once it was set up. While the room was being prep, my mother sat in the waiting room with her suitcase of clean linens and baby supplies, munching graham crackers and marshmallows between contractions.

When it looked like I was about to crown and she needed to give that final push, she puked up all the graham crackers and marshmallows which had the opposite effect of what was needed. This prolonged her labor for few more hours carrying my birth over to the 11th of September.

My mom told this story to every girl I brought home. Mothers are funny that way.

Over the years,I have discovered birthdays are notorious for pointing out, in a melancholy way, the passage of time.

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

If at the beginning of this post you thought I was going to say the terrorist attack of 4 years ago changed the world, let me remind you of what I said last year:

They say it is the day the world changed. Yet cruelty and acts of inhumanity have always been with us and I doubt that will ever change.

They say it changed everything. Rather I believe they want to use this day to change everything- to limit our liberties, to settle old grudges, and to advance their economic agenda.

On a more positive note, here are some good things that came forth on this day:

• 1773 - Benjamin Franklin writes "There never was a good war or bad peace"
• Born: O Henry (1862) [William Sydney Porter], short story writer
• 1875 - 1st newspaper cartoon strip
• Born: D. H. Lawrence (1885 - 1930) English novelist, short-story writer, poet; He is best known for "Lady Chatterley's Lover", 1928 which was banned in the U.S. and England for many years.
• 1897 - A ten-week strike of coal workers in Pennsylvania, WV, and Ohio came to an end. The workers won and eight-hour workday,semi-monthly pay, and company stores were abolished.
• 1929 - SF Mayor Rolph inaugurates new pedestrian traffic light system
• Born: Valentino (1932) Milan Italy, fashion designer
• Born: Brian DePalma (1940) Newark NJ, film director, (Body Double, Dressed to Kill)
• Born: Leo Kottke (1945) Athens Ga, guitarist, (Ice Water, Greenhouse)
• 1959 - Congress passes a bill authorizing food stamps for poor Americans
• Born: Neal X (1960) Rocker, (Sigue Sigue Sputnik)
• 1962 - Drummer Ringo Starr replaces Pete Best of the Beatles
• 1966 - Rolling Stones perform on Ed Sullivan Show
• Born: Harry Connick, Jr. (1967)
• 1972 - BART begins service with a 26-mile line from Oakland to Fremont
• 1997 - John Lee Hooker received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Thanks everybody for stopping by and I wish you a happy Rastafarian New Year.