This 21st of April, cosmically, sure had packed a historical punch. As far as birthing goes. So many good people, notable people, were born on this day.
When you think of this, every day is significant in that way, as we are ALL notable people in our own right. So a little sidebar to say, “Here’s to us.”
“Here, here.”
Back to the ones who are in some way famous.
There’s:
Charlotte Bronte born in 1816.
John Muir born in 1838.
Queen Elizabeth born in 1926.
Those are three pretty big hitters.
First with Charlotte Bronte. I wonder what their older sister made them for breakfast every morning. Their mother died of cancer when Charlotte was five years old. So the eldest, Elizabeth, did most of the rearing.
But from that family came some very big books. I mean, there was Charlotte, who grew up to write marvels such as Jane Eyre, and Emma. Her lesser know works, The Professor, Villette, and Shirley. Her sister Emily wrote Wuthering Heights. Anne wrote The Tennant of Wildfell Hall.
I can’t imagine having that scenario. I hope it was fun for them. I haven’t been telling many people, but over the past couple of years, I’ve been working on novels. I started in January 2019 and now, I have just completed my second novel. I think it would be fun to have a sister, or close friend — a novelist — who I could talk about this with. But I live in Camden, Ohio. We don’t have too many writer’s clubs or groups in these parts. Most people just draw lines in the sand around here.
Anyway, a good day that Charlotte was born. She died too young though. It seems she grew very ill while pregnant, dehydrated and malnourished from severe morning sickness. She passed in 1855, only 38 years old.
Next on the birthday boy roster is John Muir. They say he was also known as “John of the Mountains” and “Father of the National Parks” — but I bet if he were at some hoity-toity cocktail party, with little pigs-in-the-blanket appetizers, that no one actually said, “Hey, John of the Mountains. Can I get you a drink?” No.
Anyway, he was born in Scotland. Came to the United Stated in 1849, with his family, and they headed right up to wholesome Wisconsin. He went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Go Badgers.
He was a very peaceful guy. So in 1863, he moved up to Canada to avoid the draft for the U.S. Civil War. I think everyone should have done the same for that war. All the guys in the north, moving up in Canada. To the south, down to Mexico. Just let Sherman and Grant duke it out in some boxing ring somewhere. Nonetheless. Muir went on to be a highly influential American while traipsing around in the west. He was a naturalist, an author, and an environmental philosopher, to say the very least. Most of all, he was an early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States of America.
He too was a writer. His letters, essays, and books describing his adventures in nature — especially in the Sierra Nevada — have been read by millions. We have Muir to thank for Yosemite National Park, as well as the Sierra Club. He died when he was 76 years old, in a California Hospital, of pneumonia. He was a national treasure.
And then there is the Queen. Born in 1926 and still wearing her crown strong. I like Elizabeth. I bet behind all the pomp and circumstance, she is just some regular old Joe, sitting around working crossword puzzles, making funny armpit noises for her Corgi’s, eating Wheat Thins right out of the box. Long live the Queen.
So many more birthdays to write about, this could go on and on. A multitude of good lives, with a profusion good things going on in our world. An ongoing multitude of people to celebrate. So. Here’s to them, and to us, on our non-birthdays. Doing our own bits of good, in our parts of the world.
==========
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
— John Muir
===========
The power of imagination makes us infinite.
— John Muir
==========
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
— John Muir
===========
