Birthdays...

I guess I was waiting for my bloggiversary to write the birthday blog. Happy bday, Missives! You're a year old today. Someday we'll both figure out exactly what you're all about...

The stretch of time between May and mid-October has become littered with a handful of important-to-me dates, including today: The birth of what has become a repository for my random story ideas, goofballery, obsessions and the occasional misguided attempt at being funny.

Other dates include, the anniversary of my father's passing, my starting to chant, the birthday (or anniversary) of my attaining Gohonzon (11 yrs. on 9/24), and my own birthday, which happened a couple days ago.

35.

Not really a big deal, in the grand scheme of things. No, that honor went to turning 33, in which, during the week prior, I spent an inordinate amount of time thinking things like "I'M ABOUT TO BE AS OLD AS JESUS WAS WHEN HE DIED! WHY DO I CARE?" (I think the answer to that last question has something to do with the five years of Catholic school I attended while young.)

But 35 has also been heady, just in a more sedate and calm fashion. For example, 35 used to be the mid-life crisis year. 35 is 15 years away from being 50. When the old man was 35, we had just moved back to the states from Germany, and we were still three years away from our cathartic fist-fight. The average Playboy Centerfold was born at around the time I was going from Jr. High to High School.

There is nothing calamitous about these thoughts (much like the thoughts I post on this blog), they just are. They appear and disappear like quick snippets of fog until the brain moves on to something else...

So, yeah, here I am. Here's hoping for another 35.