Dear Elisa:

HAPPY 41st BIRTHDAY!

Woodblock Print #41 from 100 Views of Edo "Ichigaya Hachiman Shrine" (1858) by Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858), Brooklyn Museum Notes Circus Rose Yellow-blend Floribunda Yellow blend turning pink Blooms with 41+ petals Height: 30" to 4 feet Bred in 1955, USA by Herbert C. Swim Fabulous Rose White blend Foribunda White, near white color Blooms with 41+ petals Height: 3,5-4 feet Bred in 1998, USA by Dr. Keith W. Zary May the serenity of Hiroshige's Woodcut #41 and the two roses with 41 petals bring to you much peace and prosperity in your 41st year.

Lao Tzu (604 B.C.-517 B.C.) Chinese silk painting from British Museum

Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, Verse 41: The path into the light seems dark, the path forward seems to go back, the direct path seems long, true power seems weak, true purity seems tarnished, true steadfastness seems changeable, true clarity seems obscure, the greatest are seems unsophisticated, the greatest love seems indifferent, the greatest wisdom seems childish. The Tao is nowhere to be found. Yet it nourishes and completes all things. — translated by Stephen Mitchell      Harper Perennial (1994)

Roger Bannister wore #41 breaking 4-minute-mile, Oxford Iffley Race Track on May 6, 1954

U.S. #4203-4204 Aurora Borealis 41¢ (issued October 1, 2007)— Aurora Borealis

U.S. #4205 (10-25-2007) Star Wars: Yoda 41¢

U.S. #4224-4227 Amrican Scientists 41¢ (issued March 6, 2008)—         Gerty Cori, biochemist             Linus Pauling, structural chemist       Edwin Hubble, astronomer       John Bardeen, theoretical physicist