Arnold Schwarzenegger is having a moment.
I wouldn't call it a comeback.
He never really went away.
He has always been there - always pumping out movies, advice, his opinions, books, and now a tv show, a comedy action genre shot right here in Ontario.
And today, as he celebrates his birthday, I have to admit, I am fan-gurling over the 78-year-old bodybuilder/actor/politician/author/activist/fitness advocate and now motivator.
I somehow stumbled across his latest book, Be Useful: Seven Tools For Life, and I had to read it.
His grizzled face on the front cover, almost in a Terminator scowl, not hiding anything, his wrinkles and grey hair there for everyone to see.
It is part memoir - part instruction manual to live one's best life.
To contribute to society, to make good choices, to work hard and have a servant's heart.
One could argue that he took his own advice, having a servant's heart, a bit too literally, after he fathered a child with the household nanny. But I digress.
However, that event, one which he claims he deeply regrets now, of course, he holds himself accountable to and takes responsibility for.
It was a scandal that rocked Hollywood, and his name became synonymous with extra marital affairs and children via the help.
He didn't emerge unscathed.
His wife, Maria Shriver, divorced him. A ten year legal battle followed to negotiate a settlement. It was finally over in 2021.
Of course it is easy to remember Arnold as the glossy, baby oiled bodybuilder who emigrated from Austria to America as a young man to win bodybuilding titles ad infinitum.
It is safe to say he put bodybuilding on the world map.
Transitioning to movies as an action hero was his next chapter.
And then even as a comedian in some very funny movie roles.
Some of his movie lines are so well known, they are often repeated in random conversations: "Hasta la vista baby," "I'll be back," "Get to the choppa," "Come with me if you want to live," and "You shouldn't drink and bake," are just a few of them.
Perhaps it is his thick Austrian accent, which has never gone away, that makes these sentences so iconic.
Moving into politics as his third chapter in his metamorphosis brought great things to the State of California, where he was governor for eight years.
After politics, acting called him back for several movies, and he now has a new tv show on Netflix called FUBAR.
I watched both seasons, one and two, and I have to say, every episode makes me laugh.
Not one to take himself too seriously, there are numerous nods to his legacy; pumping up, "That's It and That's All", cheaters never prosper, and smoking that stogie!
In one scene involving puppets, his character's daughter, played by Oscar winner Monica Barbaro, mocks him with an Austrian accent, boasting, "I have muscles, and I'm from Austria where everything costs a nickel!" It is one of the funniest scenes in the show. That and the scene where he tells her to "Pump It Up", meaning the hydraulic office chair, which then breaks. I was nearly in tears laughing.
Season two offers a fantastic dance/fight scene combo which should win an award for editing.
Arnold is not afraid of his closeup, Mr. DeMille.
Grey hairs, slackening muscles, a bare chest which reveals his real life heart surgery scars.
They are all there for us to see.
Almost as a testament to a life fully and well lived.
Writing his memoir/self-help book was his way of giving back, I believe.
Even though his Mr. Olympia days are long over, he still works out at the gym, rides his bike around town, offering advice to people who ask him for it.
In fact, his next chapter is becoming a life coach of sorts.
In an episode of Gym and Fridge with Men's Health, he allows viewers into his home and prepares a smoothie: almond milk, banana, egg AND the shell (for extra calcium), and perhaps a shot of schnapps or tequila for flavor. He comments he doesn't wash his hands so it builds up his immunity. One is not really sure if he is joking.
He posts videos of his pets, mini-donkey and mini-horse, Whiskey and Lulu. They are often in his house with him, sharing his meals, or galloping about his property getting their exercise, their little hooves clacking across the tennis courts.
His growing menagerie these days includes several dogs a mini-pig now as well, which he takes for walks to keep her fit.
He is all about the keeping in shape.
There is always time for a workout, he stresses.
The book may not be a tell-all, but it is a tell-most, to get his point across, to perhaps help others who are feeling stuck and unsure how to reach their goals, to get out of their rut, to move forward in a positive way.
This is how Arnold did it, by working hard, motivated to get out of and away from the life he was born into in a small town in Austria after World War II.
Not many of us would be as driven as he was or is, to be sure.
That would be exhausting.
But we can read about his journey, perhaps learn a thing or two, and maybe translate that, take whatever messages or lessons resonate with us, and use them to help us in our own lives.
To be useful in some small way, whatever way we can.
And that, in turn, will help us.
Happy Birthday, Arnold.
Cheers and here's to many more!