Imbolc Valentine Moon
Tomorrow night Kate and I head over to the Heartland Restaurant, a place I’ve wanted to 
try for some time. The occasion is my 67th birthday. The odometer clicks over then to 39,195,000,000 miles. Getting to be a high mileage vehicle. Won’t get much at trade-in.
(aging man shoots selfie. kicked off facebook.)
When I posted about Sid Caesar’s death yesterday, I referenced live black and white television as a generational barrier. Made me wonder what others I’m on the other side of. Dial telephones. Telephones with wires. Telephone poles, too, I suppose. Gas prices under twenty-five cents. In loco parentis. The draft. Legally segregated schools. Cars without air bags, computers, cruise control. Organic food. Genetically Modified Crops. Round Up. The moon landing. Kennedy, King and Malcolm X. Drive-in movies. Available abortions. Housewives. Small town newspapers. A total closet for gays. Pre Super Bowl. Home milk delivery. I’m sure any of you could add more.
And yet. There is still infancy, childhood, adulthood and old age. We still breathe and procreate and eat, just as humans have done since the first homo sapiens emerged from the hominid line. We still love, experience joy, delight, anger. Injustice frustrates us, just as it has humans in community in all times.
The most essential, the most fundamental parts of our humanity remain regardless of time or culture. Yes, their expression and their understanding have particular nuances shaped by era and culture, but the fundamentals remain. In no time have we been immortal, remained children or been passionless.
We have never lived in any but the present moment. We have never been other than on our own in our inner lives. We have never been able to know the real inner life of another, so our lives have always included depth and mystery. We have never been other than a part of the natural world and we have never been other than dependent on it.
So my birthday, any birthday, wraps all this up and celebrates it, one person at a time. I’m almost past the 39,195,000,000 mile post and tomorrow morning at 9:30 am or so, I’ll tick over to 39,195,000,001.
