Endings and Beginnings

This time of year I begin to think of how close beginnings and endings can be. March 28, 1966.
March 20, 1968. So the latter date comes first in terms of this month. But the former came first in
chronological time.  I first saw her on a Monday night , 10pm, ABC tv. And she exited on a Wednesday night 7:30pm  same network. And sometimes a disappointment can become something you can't even name.
Of course I'm talking about Diana Rigg on the sixties tv show 'The Avengers'. I was expecting Honor Blackman(who had starred previously in the series and had gone onto international fame in a Bond film) and so I was disappointed when I first saw her. But this quickly changed as I got into the quirky off beat element of the show and her personal style of cool, intelligence, and beauty.

And off course just because her last episode viewed only set the stage for years of watching her on re-runs, then vhs, and now dvds. And as you can she we travel together. She was with me and my group on our 2006 Japan trip. I remember being in Japan summer of 1973, apart from all elements of my culture, opening an international edition of Time magazine, and there she was in an article on theater. After she left the show she went onto quite a run in theater becoming finally a Dame of the British Empire..

And she has been a role model. Her character Emma Peel was cited in TV guide as being still(in the then ninties) a woman ahead of her time. Very independent. Fearless. Unafraid to venture and stay on paths others fear to tread. I have tried to model elements of my life after her. I became interested in martial arts because that was something she did in the show.. It was almost as if if I needed a direction for my life I need look no further than her.

So I always look at March as the month of beginnings and endings and how close they can be. Here is a clip that was made to advertise the color episodes(In 1966 the episodes were black and white then in 1967 moved to color):