In the greatest of coincidences, we can not only celebrate Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s birthday today, this March 15, 2020, we can also make a toast to Saint Nicholas. How about that? A couple of gift-givers coming into this world on the same calendar date.
Of course, we know them both. St. Nicholas was known as Nikolaos of Myra. He was the Greek Bishop of Myra, and as it turns out, a very kind and giving sort of guy. His birth year was 270, there, in Patara, Asia Minor. Which really looks more like Turkey, to me, on the ancient world map. Anyway. He lived for 73 years after that (December 6, 343), pretty old for way back then.
Sneaky, that man. He had a pretty big reputation for secret gift-giving. His parents were rich. But they died during an epidemic, so a very young Nicholas became rich. He gave a lot of money to the poor. Like, at night when people would put their shoes out for him, he would put coins in those shoes. They would wake in delight. Well, the delight came after they jammed their shoes on, and hurt their little piggies on those coins. Yet. This sort of thing made him the model for Santa Claus. Good Saint Nick.
And then we have Ruth. Bader. Ginsberg. The Rock Star of the Supreme Court if you ask me. Not because of her popularity, or notoriety. No. It is because her dedication to the Constitution and the law of the United States is rock solid. It has never been bought, never wavered under pressure. Like a rock.
She is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, born here in the United States, in New York City, back in 1933. That makes her 87 years old, to date.
President Bill Clinton appointed her in August 1993. She is the first Jewish justice ever to serve. And, at that time, she was only the second female justice in history. (Sandra Day O’Conner was the first female justice.)
Ruth Bader Ginsberg is also generous but in a different way. She gives freely, her knowledge, her expertise, and her principles, standards, her values, to an entire nation. These things are driven by her dedication to the letter of the law. Pretty good coins in our shoes.
Two-for-one day in the birthday aisle.
It reminds me that people are good. Whether the year is 220 or 2020. For centuries, the kindness, the goodness, of human beings has shown through in so many people, in so many ways.
May these gifts abound in all our lives. Not only in the receiving, but in the giving. And for both, our gratitude becomes part of the gift.
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“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”
― Seneca
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“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
― Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
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“The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.”
― Henry Ward Beecher
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