Zulu Warrior

Today is my daughter Arlene’s 24th birthday. I drove 11 hours non-stop today to watch her compete in the USA Nationals in weightlifting tomorrow. This is a picture she let me take of her back about a month ago. My tiny blond-haired blue-eyed daughter who just loved animals has risen to the hugest challenges in life with such mind-bending strength of spirit, that her body is now beginning to reflect it. At age 11 she was diagnosed with diabetes and became insulin dependent. Back off everybody, the tiny girl said, I can handle this. I will give myself the shots, not you. I’ll figure out the carbs/insulin ratios, I won’t be defined by this for one minute, I’ve got it. I’ll take care of it. Age somewhere-in-there she figured out she is gay, held the life-altering secret for as long as she needed to, then bravely came out in an enormous high school that didn’t have, that I know of, any other openly gay students. Arlene has tried to help me to “come out” in much less significant areas, like declaring to religious friends or academic colleagues that I use the tarot. I have been much slower and less brave, and when I meet challenges I marvel ever more at her dauntless spirit. Our once strong and happy family fell apart during her early teens. She faced it, cared for everyone else and took care of herself when shattered parents were too toddling to be very useful. On her 21st birthday I gave her a little black toy poodle puppy, one of the biggest spirits in the tiniest body, and she named him Zulu. They were deliriously in love with each other – as full hearted a love as ever a heart can hold. He was hit by a car a year ago and killed. To mark this scar on her heart, she designed a tatoo of symbols of Zulu warriors and with care tracked down the best artist she could locate to do the work. It happened to be Zulu Tatoos in Los Angeles. Since that time she has built the body you see in this picture and has started seriously kicking ass in weightlifiting competitions. Her very first competition she won a silver medal and it has gone on from there, she already has a line up of medals. Arlene’s heart is as big as the sea. She knows how to love. I’m her mother I know, but jeez, isn’t this inspiring?