When I was in high school, I realized that George Burns and I were both born on January 20, although his birth predated mine by a half-century. He was born in 1896. I don’t recall when one of my goals in life was to get to my 100^th birthday. Then, it was to outlive Burns. He lived until March 9, 1996, which added a half-dozen weeks to his 100^th year.

George Burns

Burns taught us all about aging. “You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.” Another George, George Elliot, wrote, “It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

Interestingly, Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, nearly a century before Burns. During my high school years, we had to memorize a hundred lines of poetry or prose each semester. I memorized Annabel Lee, Eldorado, and The Raven. I hated standing before my English teachers and reciting poems or prose. Nonetheless, I still recall sections of each of those poems. Many lines of various prose or poetry memorized six decades ago function as guardrails in my life.

One of my questions about Poe is why his birthday is so significant to me. So, he was born a day before mine? The best explanation for my interest in sharing my birthdays with people born on, before, or the day after is just one of my many idiosyncrasies.

Two famous Americans were born on January 21. The first was Ethan Allen, born on January 21, 1738. During the American Revolution, he led the Green Mountain Boys, which seized Fort Ticonderoga from the British. Allen and the other American patriots fought to give America its independence.

The other famous or rather infamous person was Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson, who was born on January 21, 1824. When the American Civil War ravaged a divided nation, Jackson became a general for the Confederacy. A Confederate soldier shot Jackson while standing guard one night and thought that it was a Northern soldier. Jackson died several days after they had amputated his left arm in 1863.

So, what’s with the issue of people born on the day before, the day of, or the day after my birthday? Enter the Age of Aquarius.

The Age of Aquarius

Watch and listen to the 5^th Dimension sing the Age of Aquarius. The song has two parts: the Age of Aquarius and Let the Sunshine In. According to the horoscope, those born on January 20 are Aquarians. On some charts, the 19 is the start date. However, the song addresses the Age of Aquarius. It is a new and fascinating dawning of a new age in which to live.

Then, in the middle of singing, the 5^th Dimension sings Let the Sunshine In.

Regardless of our birthdays, we can let the sunshine in. Edgar Allan Poe, George Burns, and Ethan Allen did. It transformed their lives. As a result, those three people added much to all of our lives.

Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson opted not to let the sunshine in. Jackson’s mindset was into discrimination, racism, and enslaving of human beings. “God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave.” Jackson assumed that God had predetermined his death. I wonder whether he knew any blacks who were equally brave as him. Certainly, they weren’t equal to him as a white supremacist.

Gen. Robert E. Lee heard that Jackson had his left arm amputated due to a Confederate soldier accidentally shooting him and knew that Jackson would soon die due to medical complications. Lee commented upon Jackson’s amputation, “He has lost his left arm, but I lost my right arm.” Lee mourned that his white supremacy was adversely affected by Jackson’s pending death. How’s that for white nobility and slavery?

On Jackson’s deathbed, his last words were, “Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.” I’m unsure what the pronoun, us, meant unless it referenced the royal we.

This is another assumption. Unless Jackson’s God endorsed enslaving other human beings, then Jackson has made a theological mistake. It is difficult to buy into anyone’s attitude toward some deity that endorsed enslaving human beings.

People who buy into white supremacy, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, ad infinitum, are merely attempting to justify other forms of mistreatment of human beings. I don’t see any difference between racism and sexism. In both mindsets, one is born into being or not being equal. Men determine the place of women in our world, whether it has to do with their reproductive rights or other treatment of women as second-class. I’m a white guy and can see the obvious parallels. We need to address all those negative -isms.

Let the sunshine in. That is our beginning point.