January Birthdays

I was reminded of January birthdays today. Because Muhammad Ali is 70 today. I worship and have always worshipped Ali. He is at the top of my list of inspirational human beings. Bowie has a birthday this month. So do I.
Many of the people who inspired my youth are getting up in age. Because I too am getting up in age. Their demise will trigger a river of tears from me. Could be that Muhammad will be the most painful of all. The man captured my imagination and fired up my spirit and hijacked my admiration. I heard a comment today that I loved. "Muhammad Ali could say anything he wanted to say, speak up as he pleased, in a way most of us dream of. And he could back it up with his fists."
I started wondering who else of greatness I share a birthday month with.
Here is my edited list (because the list is long):
J.D Salinger (01/01), Isaac Asimov, Elvis, Joan Baez, Gene Krupa, Stephen Hawking, Janis Joplin, Al Capone, Edgar Allen Poe, Bill Maher, Edouard Manet, Warren Zevon, Etta James, Paul Newman, Jackson Pollock, W.C. Fields, Charlie Musselwhite, Norman Mailer, Jackie Robinson.
There are many more on the list that mean something to me but I didn't want to bore you. As if I haven't already.
It's comforting to associate your birthday, and by extension, yourself, with greatness. You definitely do not want to be just one more individual in the countless numbers of the great unwashed.
Most famous and successful people held strange jobs as they worked their way up. Soul sucking, mind crushing, spirit stealing jobs. For money. For food.
I am willing to bet nobody on the January birthday list was a part time clerk in a state run liquor store.
This gives me hope.
My path to greatness is unique. There is a different angle, a personal sparkle to my journey, that gives it soul.
A January 1 birthday is divine approval to achieve. Just knowing that J.D.Salinger shared my birthday is everything I need to know about that kind of start to a life. A January birthday is inspired by greatness, uniqueness, fight, fire and desire handed down by all the people on this list and many, many more.
I write these words because I am completely lost this month. Desperate to grab on to anything that can re-inspire me to conceive, believe and achieve.
Happy Birthday, Muhammed Ali. I love you, man. You shook up my life when I was young and impressionable, before responsibility fought hard to close my mind.
You are still there in my mind, my soul, my heart.
A toast to the month of January.