Learning From the Masters of Exuberance

Consider the remarkable Vermonter who spent much of his life photographing snowflakes — more than 5,000 "gems from God's own laboratory," the most perfect of which broke before he could capture its image for the rest of us. Recounting that "tragedy" never failed to bring tears to his eyes.

Or, consider the dynamic woman who boldly served an elegant, sit-down Thanksgiving dinner for 23 in her palatial stable, as her five Friesian horses (the breed favored by the armored knights of old) looked on, munching on carrots as the human guests feasted on cranberry-dried fruit stuffing and steamed brussel sprouts "glossed with butter and flecked with chives."

Or consider the gifted linguist who, despite having died at age 90 two years ago, still performs miracles by taking folks like me and within hours having us comfortably juggling the building blocks of French, Spanish, Italian or German.

Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley, Martha Stewart and Michel Thomas each have added a lasting exclamation mark to our world by passionately embracing life. Author Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychiatry professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine, calls such wonderfully contagious high spirits "exuberance."

"Exuberance is an abounding, ebullient, effervescent emotion. It is kinetic and unrestrained, joyful, irrepressible ... exuberance leaps, bubbles and overflows," Jamison explains in her timeless, celebratory book, "Exuberance: The Passion for Life."

If you look about you, you'll catch glimpses of these exceptional life-huggers, many of whom don't really let their imaginations catch fire until well into adulthood. Ian Fleming, for instance, didn't run off to a tropical island to write his first James Bond novel, "Casino Royale," until he was nearly 44. He died just a dozen years later, but left 13 more 007 adventures, all so thrilling that they were turned into films.

And masterful French cooking teacher Julia Child didn't taste her first truly French meal, sole meuniere — it was love at first bite — until age 36, on her journey to live in Paris with her beloved husband, Paul.

"The whole experience was an opening up of the soul and spirit for me. ... I was hooked, and for life, as it has turned out," she is quoted as saying in Noel Riley Fitch's delectable biography, "Appetite for Life."

Endings and beginnings of years are a time for reflection, especially on how fully each of us is celebrating the good fortune of simply being alive. But caught up in the octopus arms of jobs and family and to-do lists, we can often feel that life is a chore rather than a remarkable journey of learning, savoring and sharing.

Some of us are blessed with at least a touch of exuberance. But everyone can tag along with the exuberant magicians who captured life's zest on the pages of novels, in energetic cooking demonstrations or in recorded lessons guaranteed to produce a gleeful shock the first time someone who speaks no English actually understands you.

People exuberantly determined to grab life by the ears and kiss it on the nose can be enjoyed on the couch (where I snuggle with Martha Stewart's Living magazine, a guaranteed mind-blowing experience — for Halloween, she showed, step by step, how to make bats and ghosts out of black licorice, black gum drops, red nonpareils, miniature marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles).

Or, life's cheerleaders can be invited along as travel companions. On my recent vacation on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, Michel Thomas enabled me to learn how to put topspin on my backhand shots: I actually understood a French-speaking tennis pro. And my chance purchase of "Casino Royale" in an airport bookstore soon opened my spouse, Joyce, and me up to our own Bond-like adventure: We took a gamble and tried out the super spy's roulette strategy — and walked out of an island casino winners.

Author George Bernard Shaw once quipped that "youth is wasted on the young." But it's just as easy to waste the second half of life. Instead, add a big dash of exuberance — dive in, learn, marvel and savor life as a miracle worth joyously celebrating every day.

Deb Price of The Detroit News writes the first nationally syndicated column on gay issues. To find out more about Deb Price and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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