Friday, November 20, 2009

Joie De Vivre and Julia Child

We are happy to be with people who radiate the joys of being alive. I would love to meet someone like Sister Mary Patrick, the giddingly exuberant friend of Whoopi Goldberg’s Delores in the wonderfully riotous Sister Act. The French call it joie de vivre – the joy of life. But I think real people can be more colorful. And speaking of French, real people and the joy of life, who else comes to mind but the iconic American TV chef – Julia Child. Bon apetit!

The images of a beautiful life were captured beautifully by James Poniewozik in his January 2005 Time eulogy:

“To a U.S. enamored of canned string beans and TV dinners, her lessons were a revelation: fresh food tastes better, and you don’t have to be a chef to cook and eat well. It was her personality as much as her expertise that popularized her message. At 6-ft. 2-in., she was a natural ham, and she handled her on-camera missteps so cheerfully that she persuaded a generation of viewers that they could do anything she could. She was unpretentious without ever dumbing down her subject, and her longevity was the best answer to the dietary absolutists convinced that a little butter will kill you. Perhaps it will, but so, in the end, will life. Child, who lived to 91, had her fill of both.”

Photo courtesy of CinematicPassions

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hahahaha! bravo