Birthday Blog

I guess I am tired of measuring these birthdays in years that have passed: a constant backwards glance as a measure of . . ., well, what does this backwards glance represent? Usually disappointment and lament When we are younger, we only look forward to the next birthday when we can be older, and when we are older, we only look backwards to when we were young. The former engages hope and the latter regret. I prefer the stance of the young, and so, despite my sixty-one completed years, I look forward to the next many years with hope and expectation. I no longer need my driver’s license, nor the right to drink in public saloons without an Identification card. I already vote albeit, with little success, and I have long moved out from my parental home. I don’t know what the future may hold for me, but I approach it, despite serious disappointments, from a satisfied past. I have arrived at my present with intent, and I experience now at the advent of my sixty-second year, some satisfaction, some pride in accomplishment, and great expectations for the future. I do not wonder what that future may entail, but look forward to its continuous appearance and its invitations.

The summer appears over. This week I take the older daughter to her second year of college and prepare the younger for her first year of high school. And I think of Tennyson’s Ulysses:

Come my friends, ‘tis not too late to seek a new world . . .
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

I just hope that with all this ambition and energy I can still get to bed somewhat early!!