I am currently away on an Internet Vacation. I’ll be back online on March 31. I have written one new post for each day of my Vacation so that folks don’t miss me too much while I am gone. But keep in mind, these posts have been scheduled ahead of time. Feel free to comment, as always, but note that since I am not checking email, I will likely not be replying to comments until I am back from my Vacation on March 31. With that said, enjoy!
Today is my birthday1, and although I pretty much stopped counting after my Jack Benny birthday a few years back, the world conspires to remind me. It is an unremarkable birthday, the farthest you can get from a milestone birthday. Indeed, there are only two things of any interest at all about a 41st birthday. The first is that 41 is itself a prime number. The second is that 41 is the 13th prime number and 13 it itself a prime number. A numerologist might say that I’m in the prime of my life.
Actually, if all has been going well on this Internet vacation of mine, then the writing that I am attempting to get done is going gangbusters; the refocusing of my ambition to write better stories is also moving along at a rapid clip2. Also I’m spending more time with Kelly and the kids and less checking email, Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds.
There are all kinds of arbitrary measures of when a person is in the prime of life. I happen to think it is a state of mind. My mind isn’t always in that state, but I think it tends to be pretty close, like the air bubble inside a level resting on a surface that is just slightly askew. Little adjustments get me there and little adjustments can knock you off. That’s just the way it goes. Sometimes I feel slower than I used to be, and other times I surprise myself with my speed. Sometimes I look a little fuller in the face than I once was, and other times I simply feel well-fed. Sometimes the stress of the day job gets to me, and other times, my smiling and laughing kids sop away the stress the way a good sponge sops up spilled milk.
I just hope I’m lucky enough to still consider myself to be in the prime of life when I’m 82.
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nice way to think of 41, being a prime, and the 13th prime number at that. i’ll remember that for my next birthday. happy birthday!