Happy Birthday, Elin

It would have been my friend Elin's 67th birthday last week. We shared years of movie-going adventures together and she kept a list of every movie she saw. At her memorial I spoke about some of our more exotic movie trips: the drive-in spot we had where we left a rock by the speaker because my parking brake didn't work; the sheet of plywood we carried there so that if it rained our windshield would stay clear; the time we took her younger siblings and our kids to the Muppet movie and almost got kicked out because we opened beers. We took movie-going seriously!

Then I connected some of her movie titles, as a final farewell:

Here I am…to Stand and Deliver these words in The Field.

All of us: many of you Fringe Dwellers in A World Apart
had the Outrageous Fortune to know Elin:. our Sweetie, Tootsie, Cookie, Babe. Our Queen of Hearts. The Lady Eve. Y Tu Mama Tambien.

We all know how Lovely and Amazing she was:

She lived a Life Less Ordinary and her time wasn’t Business as Usual. Elin Truly, Madly, Deeply believed that Life is Sweet.
She’d Enter Laughing, full of Hope and glory, on Wings of Desire, ready to Seize the Day. She had A Beautiful Mind.
She knew how to Do the Right thing for Shy People, Tough Guys, Bad Boys, the Nasty Girl, Orphans, Bandits, the Unforgiven. She could give a Major League, Impromptu House Party that was Out of Sight.
She was a True Believer in the healing power of Beaches and White Sands, HighTide, the Glory of a Stormy Monday, Shadows and Fog, Holy Smoke, and Night on Earth.
Finding herself the Accidental Tourist, she traveled under the Sheltering Sky, looking for Gas, Food, Lodging in the Heart of Dixie, but she loved Coming Home.

Housekeeping, however, was Off Limits.

She didn’t live For Love Alone, but she never asked What’s Love Got to do with it? She knew the Sweet and Lowdown about Punch Drunk Love...it was The One True Thing.

Was there ever anyone who more enjoyed the Unbearable Lightness of Being?

But Things Change, don’t they?

I can see you now, Before Night Falls, with a Box of Moonlight and a Golden bowl, riding the Mystery Train. You’re getting Close to Eden, not Far From Heaven, and The Sweet Hereafter is waiting.