In search of a kinder month ,,,,

What can you say about March, a month in which the brightest spot seemed to be the death of perhaps the last of the great movie star?
Yes, we’ll miss Elizabeth, but there was something wonderful about being treated to a few days of images of her beauty, her adventures with (mostly) handsome and intriguing husbands, her over-the-top jewelry and some truly entertaining movies that trigger all kinds of life memories for Boomers, members of the Greatest Generation and younger pop culture and film buffs. She lived a high-profile, dramatic, difficult, often painful and sometimes exuberantly glamorous and highly original life with resilience, charm and an earthy wit.
Ms. Taylor was regularly reinventing herself with passionate and imaginative style long before Madonna was born. She was one of the first public figures to be honest and open about her problems, operations and diseases. And she ended up being a poster child for rehab and a courageous champion and fundraiser for HIV/AIDS causes.
There’s something that’s somehow uplifting about pondering Elizabeth having a happy reunion with her amigo Michael Jackson in that exclusive portion of afterlife paradise reserved for terribly exploited child stars who have struggled to emerge and help others (with possible side trips to visit her two fave hubbies, Mike Todd and Richard Burton).
So far, the new year seems to have provided an endless stream of new wars, revolts and crises. We can only pray that we are not seeing a triple whammy model for the future in Japan’s ongoing struggle with the aftermath of earthquake-tsunami-nuclear calamity.
Stephen Colbert termed it “the turducken” of disasters: catastrophes stuffed into more catastrophes. (For those not familiar with the concept, a turducken is made by stuffing a de-boned chicken into a de-boned duck, which is then stuffed inside a de-boned turkey. My friends who have attempted to make turducken suggest that you should not try this at home, if you wish to avoid adding culinary catastrophes to our miseries.)
And we can only hope that T.S. Eliot is wrong about April being the cruelest month. How can we follow, how can we bear, a month more brutal than March 2011?
We could all use a break in this strange surreal spring, and maybe some good laughs, but it seems too early even for wryly sympathetic metaphors, let alone jokes.
Instead, how about some inspirational quotes from, rather than jokes about, someone we’ll miss, a superstar who was voluptuously entertained and entertaining during her 79 years on the planet.
Here are thought-provoking comments from the late, great Ms. Taylor:
• “It’s not the having, it’s the getting.”
• “I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I’m not afraid to look behind them.”
• “So much to do, so little done, such things to be.”
• “It is strange that the years teach us patience; that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting.”
• “When people say, ‘She’s got everything,’ I’ve got one answer — I haven’t had tomorrow.”
Tomorrow is something most of us will have … hopefully with growing patience, to see us through tough times — and rewarding adventures — ahead.
Here’s to a healing, rejuvenating and kind April. We and our embattled world really need it.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.