Happy Birthday, Matt Lamb!
Please help me wish a very happy birthday to Matt Lamb, as he celebrates his 77th birthday on Tuesday, April 7.
It was on that day in 1932 that Matthew James Lamb was born at the Little Company of Mary Hospital in Chicago, the middle child of Matthew Joseph Lamb II and Margaret Lawler Lamb, better known as “Peg.”
As is detailed in Matt's biography, Matt Lamb: The Art of Success (John Wiley & Sons):
(http://www.amazon.com/Matt-Lamb-Success-Richard-Speer/dp/0471711543/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239005274&sr=8-1)
“Lamb arrived in the world 13 days earlier than expected, apparently eager to get things rolling. When Peg’s water broke, her husband and father-in-law were on the city’s West Side at a rally for presidential candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then running against incombent Herbert Hoover.
“M.J. had phoned home from the rally, only to learn that Peg’s contractions had begun minutes earlier. The men sped home to the South Side, running red lights along the way in time-honored fashion...
“Baptized Matthew James on April 24, 1932, at Saint David’s Church on 32nd and Union, Lamb was an agreeable little cherub with blue eyes and wavy hair...”
As we wish this grown-up, blue-eyed cherub birthday tidings on this auspicious occasion, it gives us time to reflect on his extraordinary life: more than three-quarters of a century of striving, success, growth, setbacks, re-evaluations, and constantly pulling the rug out from under himself, lest he get too comfortable with his own prejudices and habits.
Matt provides us an extraordinary lesson in how to evolve, how to age gracefully, how to accept the things he cannot change and change the things he can.
It is an inspiration to witness a human being so driven and passionate about the world around us. He is both a harbinger of the future and also a throwback to an earlier age, when people lived by principle and led by example.
Matt, thank you for the example you set and for your manifold contributions to the realms of contemporary art, philosophy, spirituality, and the quest for lasting peace between the peoples of the world.
As you embark upon your 78th year, warmest wishes for many, many more—from your family, friends, colleagues past and present, and from all your friends on the Matt Lamb Blog and the World-Wide Web.
Happy Birthday, Matt Lamb, and may peace, tolerance, understanding, hope, and love follow you into the coming year!