birthdays

"i don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve"
so goes one of literature's great birthday speeches. imagine inviting 144 people over for a birthday party and including that line in your speech.

i just had a birthday, turned 55. one of my friends signed a card, "to the aarp man of the year." now I can sign up for all those "senior discounts" and eat early bird specials in restaurants. i wonder if paul mccartney flashes his senior discount card when he dines out?

people tend to be very nice on birthdays. it's almost like birthdays are a time off from anything nasty or bad relationships or anything harsh...but when bilbo spoke the words i quoted at the beginning of these thoughts he was breaking the cardinal rule of niceness on birthdays and speaking harsh truth, at least truth as he saw it.

a hobbit does not recieve gifts on his or her birthday but gives them. one year i did that with my family. i surprised them with gifts. years later my son was still asking when i would do that again. it is still his favorite my birtday.

i like good surpises. rick mapes gave me a good surpise on my 30th birthday when the normal jesus house concert was turned into a surprise birthday party for me. it was quite an evening. i still have the photos.

if you have a birthday soon, i hope you spend it with people you, at least, half like.