Día de los Muertos

It's kind of strange having a birthday on Día de los Muertos.

When we were in gorgeous Santa Fe not long ago, many of the shops were displaying items like the Catrinas pictured here. Aren't they beautiful in a Tim Burton Corpse Bride way? It would be fun to be in Santa Fe today.

Here's a poem from El Dia de los Muertos:

What is Death?

What is death? It is the glass of life broken into a
thousand pieces, where the soul disperses like
perfume from a flask, into the silence of the eternal
night.

Unknown Author

In addition to being born on All Souls Day, my birthday is sometimes Election Day (and this year it's "fall back" day where you get an extra hour). This proved pretty bittersweet in 2004 when after listening to exit polls indicating a victory for Kerry/Edwards (on our way to a couple days at the Oregon coast) the news started to change as the day and evening wore on. It definitely put a damper on things but a birthday is still something to celebrate even when things go south on you politically. It's a reminder that life will and does go on despite election outcomes. Now, I'd be one of the first to declare the Bush/Cheney administration as the worst in our nation's history but the extreme supporters in both the McCain and Obama camps are wrong when they proclaim their fears that the victory of their opponent means certain doom. Neither of these candidates are perfect and whomever wins will inherit a huge, H U G E mess, but no matter what, the work that needs to be done is not all on the victor's shoulders. We need to change the two party system and hold every elected and appointed official in Washington accountable for actively working to solve the problems without regard to their own political futures and the power of their respective political parties. Yeah, I know, good luck with that.

So, happy birthday to everyone born today, all politics aside!