Our Birthdays

Dear Maria,

Good morning!  Guess you heard that the newest addition to the family arrived yesterday morning on my birthday. So little Ava is one day old and I am one day older. Maybe a tad more circumspect? Probably not. Wiser is just not part of my vocabulary.

I have already joked that she will be 38 as I turn 100. Perhaps she will have children moaning about being forced to celebrate my birthday—Oh, lord! Please don’t make me, Mom. Why I remember when we could drive our cars into things when we wanted to, I will tell them. The old man is daft, they will say, or super goofy as no doubt daft will be long gone and buried. As I may be.

The thought just struck me to mark off the days on the hall walls as so often done in the movies, like prisoners accounting for time spent. Yep, the old man is truly bonkers. Of course, I would have some catching up to do. Not sure I want to know the number specifically. Super huge, I’m afraid.

That I share a birthday with Ava is sweet, and that Alex Haley and Hulk Hogan are also birthday mates speaks to something—who is universally known in that pairing?  Says something about something.

I keep imagining, too—uh-oh—my birthday mates in other parts of the world, those specifically born on my birth date. Maybe a Ganbaatar from Ulaanbaatar, whose life in Mongolia may have been physically tougher than mine, but he may be the happiest man on the planet.

Begs a question or three, doesn’t it?

Or at least the same age—time to Google, just curious. Indeed, or Natsagdorj, who has a doctorate in teaching—one of only two in the country—and who got a laptop through a financial aid program so that he can write a textbook for Mongolian language teachers. He, too, is 62.

And Elin Ebba Gunnarsdottir, she a short fiction author from Iceland.

And now little Ava.

That we share the planet is both miracle and mystery.

Summer’s heat continues even as school days loom. Long past the time when my birthday meant weeks ahead of hot outdoor play before heading back into the classroom. My local colleagues are three days into their week of pre-season work and meetings.

Me? Just a day older.

Be well. Have fun. Always, srk