Steve Martin. Stand up comedian, actor, author, musician. He always brings a smile to my face. And. Today is his birthday. He turned 73 years old when the clock struck 12:01. Our time, our measures of years.
If he were in dog years, he’d be really old. Like Methuselah, some 511 years old. Well, Old Methuselah was much older. That biblical patriarch was said to have lived the longest of all characters mentioned. He stuck around for 969 years. I’m not sure how he ended up dying. Skiing accident maybe. Anyway, he was the son of Enoch, the father of Lamech, and the grandfather of Noah. Maybe he was water skiing.
But back to Steve Martin and his years. Well. He could be in Polly years. In my mind, I am 25 years old. So that would make Steve roughly 35 and 1/2. When we were kids, the 1/2 was always very important when we’d announce our ages. “I am 5 and 1/2!” But now, it is only the whole number we use. I might go back to the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 system of age-telling. Since I’m only 25.
Dang it. Steve. Steve Martin. That’s why I am writing. Born August 14, makes him a Leo. And we all know how Leo’s are. They are bold and dramatic. They are also very creative, self-confident, and pretty dang dominant. Leo’s are said to be able to achieve anything they want to — in any area of life they commit to.
Our Signs of the Zodiac can be telling. Those Leos sort of have this”King of the Jungle” thing going for them, but at the same time, they have a very good sense of humor. And that sort of sounds like Steve, from a distance.
From a distance. He is one of the very few “famous” people I’d like to meet. He can look into the camera and say “Cream of Mushroom Soup” and I would end up rolling on the floor laughing. I think he is funny. But truly? In reality? I don’t want to meet him. We would probably go to lunch somewhere, and I wouldn’t have the first thing to say about my boring life. So we would sit there in silence, eating our Cheese Pizzas. Then he’d say, “Pass the salt,” and I would roll out of my chair, laughing. So it would be awkward, and embarrassing. He’d say, “Please, get up off the floor.” And I would start all over again — the rolling, the laughing.
We saw him and Marty Short on their tour, a couple of years ago. It was all very scripted, but even still, he was funny. More than anything, I enjoyed his music and banjo-playing with The Steep Canyon Rangers. It was all good.
When he and Martin Short were filming “Three Amigos” — someone shot a pistol right beside his ear. Since that time, since 1986, he has had Tinnitus (ringing in his ears). That would make me a little crazy, I think. Like my one tooth. I bit into an apple one day, and a little piece of the hardcore, felt like it got stuck behind one of my teeth. This was about a year ago. I’ve been to the dentist three times about this. They can’t see anything, but I can feel it. I’m aware of it all the time. Kind of like Tinnitus, but of the mouth. And without the ringing.
So there you have it. Today is Steve’s birthday.
And of course, that is something we all have in common. We all have a birthday. And we all have our years, no matter how we count them. Human, dog, or otherwise.
But the thing that matters really, is not how we count the years, but how we make them count. May you bring a smile to someone’s face, with your day today. It would be a stand-up thing to do.
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“Peace begins with a smile..”
― Mother Teresa
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“More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.”
― Roy T. Bennett,
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