May 15, 2008
Turning 60 with Israel—just Fed-Ex those Dead Sea anti-aging creams
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For me, turning 60 is proof positive that I'll never regain my lost brain cells or cellular elasticity; I'll forever be best friends with my hair colorist, and I'll always need to be vigilant about exercising my increasingly creaky body.But I am the proud mother of four sons, all committed members of the tribe. And what I've done, along with my husband, Larry, is create a loving and stable home filled with Jewish observances, rituals and values, including "you shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old" (Leviticus 19:32).
And you, Israel, it's amazing what you've achieved in six decades.
You've provided a homeland for millions of displaced, destitute and disenfranchised refugees. You've revived a dead language, made the desert bloom and become an international high-tech powerhouse. And perhaps most important, you've developed the Gottex bathing suit with the industrial-strength tummy-control panel.
But the truth is, Israel, as Supervisor Yaroslavsky pointed out, you're not 60 at all; you're really 3,000 years old. Sure, you might get greener as we born in 1948 all get grayer but it's still, in Yaroslavsky's words, a "head fake."
So Israel, girlfriend, party on. Maybe I'll even join you for a hora or an Independence Day hike. After all, as Yaroslavsky said, "Sixty is really a very good number compared to 3,000."
Jane Ulman on a 1966 trip to Israel, dressed in her friend's army uniform
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