As many of you know my birthday was earlier this week.
Most of the day of my birthday I spent working on responding to discussion posts and grading midterm papers for the graduate class I teach at the University of Maryland University College. During the day I talked to my two wonderful daughters. I spent a weekend with Miriam, joined on Saturday by Ellen, seeing Broadway shows, movies (including Serenity, of course), an improv show, and wandered around New York City; my pre-birthday birthday. This coming Monday I will go with Ellen and my other daughter Tamar to see a jazz saxophonist at Blues Alley, Mindi Abair, my post-birthday birthday.
Of course I also received many Facebook and Linkedin Happy Birthday’s. One in particular stood out from someone I only met once. She worked at the FAA in Oklahoma City. I had lunch with her and a number of other FAA staff there, probably around 2007. She wrote that she had been thinking of me and the fact that I introduced her to Firefly, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series), and Serenity, all of which she loved, and noting that if I was interested in watching Nathan Fillion, who played the Captain in both, that he was in Castle (which I was aware of, but appreciated being told). More on this shortly.
That afternoon, Ellen and I went to Nando’s Peri Peri, a Peruvian chicken place that has opened a branch near Nationals Park and then spent 2.5 hours at the Park waiting for the Nationals game to be canceled which it was (right as the rain was finally stopping, though clearly the field was far too wet for baseball). The game was rescheduled for August 4th, as Ellen noted this now represented my post-post-birthday celebration (of course later that week Ellen is going to Portland OR with Miriam, so I will have my second wild and crazy bachelor weekend of the year, so perhaps a post-post-post-birthday celebration, probably best to retire that phrase altogether).
SO, what did I learn from my birthday this year.
First, I learned that if I sat down with my back to the wall at Nationals Park reading my kindle during the rain delay for 45 minutes or longer THEN at my current age I am basically physically unable to get up (or at least get up in a fashion that can survive viewing).
Second, the biggest enjoyment of a birthday is from the family that surrounds us and if we are lucky are loved by and can love. The smart person has the opportunity to do that every day, I have been trying to be smarter as I get older.
Finally, something that those who are not on social networks do not realize, while nothing substitutes for family and very close friends, there is much value that can be obtained from that next (or next after that) wider circle that we interact with intermittently (and generally electronically). I find myself more interested in experiences than things, each experience with someone I share some kind of connection to has the possibility of bringing value.
For those with nothing better to do, July 19th is the next showing of Serenity at the Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse starting at noon. I’ll be there.