Birthdays

Birthdays can be a confusing day, at least for me. You see, it is like you want people to know it is your birthday and you don't. I used to think it was one day out of the whole year that was about me. Tomorrow won't be, shouldn't be. Yet, to be just about you is sort of narcissistic, don't you think? Life should not be about me.

I received many well wishes on Facebook and then wonder, how many of them are just automated. Oops, glass half empty.

It is time for reflection. Another year I survived, and year closer to "graduation". I am so grateful for good health; I can still do most things I could do as a young 40 year old, just not as well, as fast, as quick, for as long etc. Well, I don't know if I can still do a cart wheel. I haven't tried. Someone is always looking when I think of it.

That 16th birthday is a big one; Now I will be able to drive, freedom. Trouble was, I got grounded the day I got my license. Yes, there is story there. Then there was the Gentile Bar Mitzvah birthday, occurring at age 18. Now I could drink beer legally, vote, marry and get killed in Vietnam. I can remember sitting in a bar in Watertown, NY in 1972, thinking, man, I am a quarter of a century old. That being old. Now my youngest child is that. 50! Half a century. Yes, I am a little hung up on my age and century comparisons. Next big birthday will be the medicare birthday at age 65. Oh, and at 68 there is the 50th class reunion. Wait, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Presents and banana cake and sometimes a family gathering. More blessings. With a birthday right after Christmas, you don't get to spread the presents out over the year. Blast! My poor family just finishes buying presents for me for Christmas and then they have to buy again for my birthday. Blast for Them! Mom just sort of saves a Christmas present to give to me for my birthday. Good planning.

Then there is the whole old age thing. A friend of mine, Tom Perkins, used to say that "age was mind over matter, if you don't mind, it don't matter". I always liked that. I have tried to keep doing the physical things that I always have done. I hope to continue to do so, with God's continued blessing, until I just plain can't.