It's Yoko Ono's notbirthday
Feb. 11th, 2005 07:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusIt's Yoko Ono's notbirthday! Happy notbirthday, Yoko Ono!
Now, let's see, when it's Yoko's notbirthday there's something else important going on, isn't there? Well, it's Chinese New Year this week, isn't it? Year of the rooster, right? (Kung hei fat choi to my Hong Kong friends!) Yes, but there's something else. Hmm, the Muslims are celebrating the sightings of the crescent moon that heralds year 1426 of the Hijri calendar. We pray to Allah to guide us and grant Maghferat (Ameen)! But no, there's something else. Can it be Japanese National Foundation Day, kenkoku kinenbi, the day in 660BC when, according to ancient myths, the Japanese nation was founded by Emperor Jimmu? And the day the Meiji Constitution was signed? Yes, it is both of those, but I'm sure there's something else.
Shit, of course! It's my fucking birthday.
I'm not going to tell you my age because it's just fucking ridiculous. Nobody is this old! Well, not me, anyway. Not until today. Bloody hell! If it's true that 65 is "the new 45" then I should be thinking about retiring. Oh, it only works one-way? You can only downsize? That's a relief. In that case, perhaps I just turned "the new 25". Just put me down as "between 25 and 65". From now on I'm just never going to mention my age at all, and hope people forget about it. When I go, they'll say "He was of indeterminate age..." They'll look at my dental records. Then they'll talk about what I did.
There are plenty of good things about getting older. What I notice is that the world keeps filling up with younger people, which presumably means there are fewer and fewer sclerotic old reactionaries to contend with. And more and more pretty girls to flirt with. (But I'm in a relationship, so I don't do that!) Also, you start feeling included in the world more. These days I'm invited to do a lot more things than I ever did when I was young. Interesting things. Be on TV. Make art projects and gallery shows. Write a book. Write a weekly column in a paper. Perform at the Venice Biennale, give a lecture in Seoul. (These are all things I've been invited to do in the last couple of months.) As you ripen into age, you find yourself on the map, known to the people you want to be known to. People of your generation come to power. People who think the same way as you do can commission you to do stuff. Hurrah!
Being young often felt like being blank, unformatted, excluded, alienated. It felt like clutching at fragments of possible selves here and there, never having the whole picture, never feeling this sense of being centred, calmly purposeful, self-secure. When you're young, frustrated desire and self-destructive impulses and self-loathing toss you hither and thither. (I like saying that. "Toss you hither and thither.") When you get older, if you're lucky, all the strands come together. Stuff makes more sense. You know how you feel about things. You have a set of hard-won values and you can argue for them. You feel like a finished painting, a completed identity. You know who you are, and other people know who you are. It feels pretty good. That security (and it's not, in my case, anything to do with financial security) gives you the confidence to pursue its opposite. You can disorient yourself, travel, play and experiment with more confidence. You know that, whatever happens, you won't lose yourself. Ask Yoko Ono.
The bard of punk, John Lydon, laid out the Four Stages of Man in his song Public Image: "My entrance, my own creation, my grand finale, my goodbye!" I guess I'm still at the "my own creation" part. I'm trying to stave off the grand finale as long as possible.
Now, let's see, when it's Yoko's notbirthday there's something else important going on, isn't there? Well, it's Chinese New Year this week, isn't it? Year of the rooster, right? (Kung hei fat choi to my Hong Kong friends!) Yes, but there's something else. Hmm, the Muslims are celebrating the sightings of the crescent moon that heralds year 1426 of the Hijri calendar. We pray to Allah to guide us and grant Maghferat (Ameen)! But no, there's something else. Can it be Japanese National Foundation Day, kenkoku kinenbi, the day in 660BC when, according to ancient myths, the Japanese nation was founded by Emperor Jimmu? And the day the Meiji Constitution was signed? Yes, it is both of those, but I'm sure there's something else.
Shit, of course! It's my fucking birthday.
I'm not going to tell you my age because it's just fucking ridiculous. Nobody is this old! Well, not me, anyway. Not until today. Bloody hell! If it's true that 65 is "the new 45" then I should be thinking about retiring. Oh, it only works one-way? You can only downsize? That's a relief. In that case, perhaps I just turned "the new 25". Just put me down as "between 25 and 65". From now on I'm just never going to mention my age at all, and hope people forget about it. When I go, they'll say "He was of indeterminate age..." They'll look at my dental records. Then they'll talk about what I did.
There are plenty of good things about getting older. What I notice is that the world keeps filling up with younger people, which presumably means there are fewer and fewer sclerotic old reactionaries to contend with. And more and more pretty girls to flirt with. (But I'm in a relationship, so I don't do that!) Also, you start feeling included in the world more. These days I'm invited to do a lot more things than I ever did when I was young. Interesting things. Be on TV. Make art projects and gallery shows. Write a book. Write a weekly column in a paper. Perform at the Venice Biennale, give a lecture in Seoul. (These are all things I've been invited to do in the last couple of months.) As you ripen into age, you find yourself on the map, known to the people you want to be known to. People of your generation come to power. People who think the same way as you do can commission you to do stuff. Hurrah!
Being young often felt like being blank, unformatted, excluded, alienated. It felt like clutching at fragments of possible selves here and there, never having the whole picture, never feeling this sense of being centred, calmly purposeful, self-secure. When you're young, frustrated desire and self-destructive impulses and self-loathing toss you hither and thither. (I like saying that. "Toss you hither and thither.") When you get older, if you're lucky, all the strands come together. Stuff makes more sense. You know how you feel about things. You have a set of hard-won values and you can argue for them. You feel like a finished painting, a completed identity. You know who you are, and other people know who you are. It feels pretty good. That security (and it's not, in my case, anything to do with financial security) gives you the confidence to pursue its opposite. You can disorient yourself, travel, play and experiment with more confidence. You know that, whatever happens, you won't lose yourself. Ask Yoko Ono.
The bard of punk, John Lydon, laid out the Four Stages of Man in his song Public Image: "My entrance, my own creation, my grand finale, my goodbye!" I guess I'm still at the "my own creation" part. I'm trying to stave off the grand finale as long as possible.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 10:31 pm (UTC)So that's it. It's not age, man, it's just more time you had to learn stuff. May we all do the same.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 10:34 pm (UTC)This will be my new mantra.
P.S. Die Yoko die! :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 10:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 10:38 pm (UTC)telephones
Date: 2005-02-10 10:39 pm (UTC)my mom was at her museum,(in new york) the one where theres a telephone in the middle of the exhibit and she calls it once a day and whoever is around chats with her.
only the phone didnt ring when my mom was there...oh well.
-esther
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 10:40 pm (UTC)neat that you share a birthday with yoko ono! and one of my coworkers. i drink my champagne for both of you. really!
being young (relatively?), i can't wait to be older. or really, i am hungry for more knowledge and don't think i've learned enough in these years.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 10:40 pm (UTC)HAPPY Birthday! then
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 10:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 10:41 pm (UTC)And I know I must be on the right track: I love Yoko to fuckin' death!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 10:41 pm (UTC)Happy birthday, Fella!
i love how her art is so interactive.
Date: 2005-02-10 10:42 pm (UTC)this was at the japan society, i think. years ago!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 10:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 10:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 10:47 pm (UTC)Consider this: If those living today actually begin to meet the expectations of some scientists, you may not even be out of adolescence yet.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 10:50 pm (UTC)Yeah, that's what I was trying to say. But I think recognizing you're hungry for knowledge is half the battle. All we have to do now is eat!
Re: i love how her art is so interactive.
Date: 2005-02-10 10:53 pm (UTC)Thank God It's Your Birthday Well It's My Birthday Too
Date: 2005-02-10 10:55 pm (UTC)http://www.yoko-ono.com
Or do you know something we don't, Nick?
It is however (in 1hour 40minutes when Uk time reads 12.30am February 11th) my birthday too. And Gene Vincent, Mary Quant, Burt Reynolds and Andrew Loog Oldham's mother. Happy birthday, Andrew Loog Oldham's mother.
Happy Birthday!
Date: 2005-02-10 11:02 pm (UTC)Happy Birthday to you, too.
Date: 2005-02-10 11:06 pm (UTC)Re: Thank God It's Your Birthday Well It's My Birthday Too
Date: 2005-02-10 11:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 11:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 11:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 11:10 pm (UTC)I must keep that in mind as I get older. It's a very positive way of looking at things. Especially the bit about the pretty girls. As long as one doesn't get depressed at how much younger the younger people and pretty girls are than you and how different their pop-cultural reference points are to your own; how the battles and issues and defining moments of your youth mean nothing to them, except perhaps in a decontextualised ironic-pomo-retro sense.
Also, you start feeling included in the world more. These days I'm invited to do a lot more things than I ever did when I was young. Interesting things. Be on TV. Make art projects and gallery shows. Write a book. Write a weekly column in a paper. Perform at the Venice Biennale, give a lecture in Seoul. (These are all things I've been invited to do in the last couple of months.) As you ripen into age, you find yourself on the map, known to the people you want to be known to. People of your generation come to power. People who think the same way as you do can commission you to do stuff. Hurrah!
Though isn't being accepted into the establishment, the invisible barriers opened for you by networks of powerfully-placed contemporaries, the first step to becoming one of the despised sclerotic old reactionaries?
Re: Thank God It's Your Birthday Well It's My Birthday Too
Date: 2005-02-10 11:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-10 11:16 pm (UTC)