It’s Philip Glass’s birthday today.
I went through a period in grad school where I listened to this cd every day. It was not a good period. Did the music make it better, or worse? Or did I just ride it through?
Anyway, I like Glass, but wouldn’t mention his birthday were it not also my birthday. I’m not as old as the composer, but I almost certainly have more days behind me than in front of me.
It’s odd: to think of one’s life as more than half over but also simultaneously to realize I’ve lived a long time and I’ve got a long stretch in front of me.
I turn around and look at my life and say sing-shout My god, what have I done? but I don’t ever think, wow, that was quick. It’s been a trek, a slog, a marathon, a sojourn—anything but a lark.
Perhaps that’s the one upside to living so much of my life down: I’ve felt so damned many jolts and jangles on my wayfaring through the days that looking ahead the end does not seem near; a bumpy path is a long one.
No guarantees, of course—Mayan apocalypse 2012!—but absent the end of the world or a Newt presidency (do I repeat myself?), well, as Emmylou sang, I’ve still got a ways to go.
AbsurdBeats 
happy bday abbeats, probably on the downhill slope now myself and as one who never took getting this far for granted I’m still always given pause when I consider another 30-40, hope the day treats you well
Ha, I just looked at the date—and I apparently never changed my WordPress clock, because while I wrote this on the 31st, WordPress recorded it as the 1st.
Anyway, my birthday was. . . a Tuesday.
belated bday wishes are my specialty
Happy Belated Nine-Months-Since-Conception Day!
Also, in case you’ve never heard or read it before: you will love David Ives’ Phillip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread.
Thanks, both of you. And BTA—oooh, I’ll check it out!
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-02-02/catholics-contraception-and-new-health-care-law