The Season of Cher-ing

Turn back time...

I’m obsessed with a few things and people. Always have been. Clouds, bridges, fire flies, Elizabeth Taylor, french fries, early Motown, John Fowles, Michelangelo’s Pieta, All About Eve, The Baptistry of St John in Florence, Autumn in Bucks County, Ste. Chapelle in Paris.......and Cher.

I mean, she’s Cher, for God’s sake.

And anyone who doesn’t understand the simplicity and wonder of that statement is missing out on a lot.

Some 20 or 25 years ago, very good friends – we’ll call them the Os – came to our home for an annual New Years thing we used to do. Big fun; smart attractive people; delicious food; lots of champagne; many laughs and well-timed surprises. The O’s were a little heightened that evening because the big surprise was theirs to share. They had brought, for the Muse and me, a holiday gift, a little something something. It was a beautifully wrapped shoe box-sized package festooned with every bit of Christmas-New Years magic you can apply to a box. Kindawonderful.

Eventually the time came to open the gift and undo the outside beauty, only to reveal...wait for it...WHAT? It’s the Cher doll! And it happens to be the year the doll made a guest appearance on Will and Grace. And when the wrapping had been completely pulled away, we saw that the box had been personally autographed to me and the Muse by Bob Mackie, the fashion legend, who not only created fantasies on the natural wonder that is Cher, but also created the doll and, well, there you have it.

And I’m here to tell you, if you’re a young man approaching middle age and you’ve ever had any questions about the road life has led you down, opening a Cher doll on New Years Eve and experiencing your natural reaction pretty much sums it up for you. Yep, the right road. But maybe next time we can take a cab? So much faster.

Anyway...time passes. 20 or 25 years, in fact. 20 or 25 years of Cher in her Bob Mackie autographed box joining us under the Christmas tree and staying through New Years (and she hasn’t changed a bit...but you knew that.) We found ourselves in Palm Springs with two of our favorite people in life. We’re at a restaurant waiting for our table to be ready, when the maitre d’ mentioned that the group just finishing up at our table was having a creative meeting headed up by...Bob Mackie. How about that? Funny, right?

So, when Mr. Mackie and his party exited the restaurant, he came over to our group to apologize for the wait. Nice. And after some coaxing from my friends and loved ones, I said to him,”I’m afraid I owe you a very long over-due thank you. You see, (and the details of the New-Years-autographed-Cher-doll-box follow here). He smiled broadly and laughed and was genuinely appreciative and said,”You can thank her too,” pointing to one of his companions,”because we created the doll together. This is the Mattel team.”

And just like that, it’s a moment! Wonderful people, kind people, creative people (and he looks amazing, I gotta say). And it all comes back to Cher and her Cher-ness, because those who live their own truth inspire everyone else, am I right?

So, my point I guess, is this – go out immediately and find your inner Cher! And once you have, Cher it with others. Because you never know when just being you is gonna be the inspiration someone else will need to become who they’ve always been meant to be.

All of us invent ourselves. Some of us just have more imagination than others.

– Cher