Just remember that you're standing...

So I must thank everyone for the kind wishes on this, the 47th anniversary of my birth. Or as some cynical folks might say: the marking of the circumnavigation of 47 complete circuits, through perigee, apogee, along our elliptical path around the sun. Or for some real killjoys: 17,165 revolutions of our home planet.

Now a true pessimist, say, some freak who’s obsessed with failure, might marvel upon the similarities between this endless celestial dance and a rodent endlessly spinning its exercise wheel. And for bonus futility points we get to be rodents on an exercise wheel inside an exercise wheel. Not that I’m that kind of person. Not the kind who each year on this date gets a reminder of one’s meaningless place in this endless journey. It’s not like I’m Winnie the Pooh who, after getting lost very lost, started following footprints in the snow hoping they’d lead him out of the forest, only realize they were his own, and that he’d been going in circles all along.

Nope that’s just not my style. I mean look, I even celebrated #PositiveThinkingDay:

I’m ever the optimist. Ok, hear me out on this one. Because although we keep spinning our wheels, although we wander lost in the woods only to find we’ve been going in circles, unlike the rodent in the wheel, our cage is on a cosmic Ferrari. This thing does a cool 500 thousand mph. Okay, okay, sure it’s still doing a circuit course, like some galactic NASCAR event with a black hole in the middle of the infield. BUT at least we won’t circle the course until 200 million years pass by. Even the worst pessimist can’t complain of deja vu with that lap time. We’re always moving forward, and we won’t get any re-runs until we’re long gone and turned into petroleum.

Nope. Nary an existential crisis to be found here. Instead the day was highlighted by walking with the kids and dog, folding laundry, playing the fiddle and harmonica, going out for some kickass ramen, and home for homemade (by my very talented daughter) jelly filled brioche donuts. I know none of you believes I’m an optimist. But I think you can all believe that the one consistent thing that gets me out of bed, that gets me to move, that keeps me running around in life’s endless circles, is the friends and family who bless my life.

I write this blog. I battle depression. I sit at home unemployed. But I don’t for a second ever forget what good I have. I’ll get back to all of that negativity tomorrow. In these, the last few hours of my birthday, I’ll enjoy my donuts, submit this post, and maybe enjoy life a bit.