When I'm Sixty-Four

You Say It's Your Birthday?

It's My Birthday Too

　

Usually, it is the "big" birthdays, those with a zero at the end, that make someone stop and think where life has been, and where it might be going from here.

　

Well, for the first time, I've arrived at a birthday where I've realized I just cannot be certain of reaching the next big birthday. Or even sure that I want to.

　

In any case, birthdays do make you think. What I've been thinking of lately is what I own. Not material things, I've never been too worried about that.

　

What I have been thinking of are Joys, Sorrows and Regrets.

　

Joys are always shared. Always. Even if there is no-one around when they occur, it is impossible to avoid telling people, impossible to avoid needing to tell people, and those same people you need to tell will share and increase your joy. Joys are always shared, one way or another.

　

Sorrows are also shared, nearly always. The loss of a friend, the loss of a love, or just the painful realization that you are not who you think you are, or who you hoped to be, or worse, that you have disappointed someone who means all to you. The same people you've shared joys with are usually those who share your sorrows, and lessen them by that sharing. We've all had one of those sorrows earlier this month, and that is part of what made me start thinking of this.

　

Regrets, however, are your own sole property, Perhaps the only thing that is not shared. Even if you should tell someone, they cannot take any of that regret away. So at the end of life, your regrets are really all that you own, by yourself.



I've had cause for a lot of regret, lately, but will not go farther than that, because it belongs to me alone, and I must deal with it on my own.


In any case, this is my birthday, and it has its own theme song. No longer "many years from now"

 Sorry to say you might have to click through a Hillary Clinton ad to see it, but please persevere