Mini-Me....

My Mother gave me this photo (pardon the grainy scan) this week. From the date on it, we estimate it was taken almost thirty years ago to the month. Ahhhhhhhh youth: no split ends, no body fat and a great sunkissed tan. Life was good then! Then again, I looked at the other photo and realized it's much sweeter now!

Recently my dear girlfriend Lisa Jane took this "Mommy and Me" photo session of Sinclair and I for her first birthday. I can see a little resemblence....can you?


Seeing these photos reminded me of a great prose on life....Enjoy!


"Ladies and Gentlemen, if I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The longterm benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have started to fade. But, trust me, in 20 years you will look back on photos of yourself and cannot recall in a way you cannot grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you actually look....you are never as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future; or do worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind of things that blindside you at 4 PM on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that challenges and scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste time on jealousy; sometimes you are ahead, sometimes you are behind....the race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget all the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep all your old love letters, throw away all your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life....the most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you will miss them when they are gone.

Maybe you will marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you will have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you will divorce at 40, maybe you will dance the "funky chicken" on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either -- your choices are half chance, so are everyone else's.

Enjoy your body, use it everyway you can...don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it. Your body is the greatest instrument you will ever own.

Dance. Even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them. Do not read beauty magazines, they will only depress you.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they will be gone for good. Be nice to family; they are the link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in gepgraphy and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old and when you do you will fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, that one never knows when it will run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time you are 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But, trust me on the sunscreen....