It's My BIRTHDAY!
Welcome to my birthday! Today I'm 31 years old, being born on Thursday, January 20th, 1972. Wooohoo! Let the celebrations begin! :-) I've always loved my birthday, because it's MY day. Things don't have to be very special today for it to be a great day.
Now, for those of you very literal minded folk out there, you're wondering when and where I was born as to whether right now, at 12 something A.M. in the middle of Europe is actually the anniversary of the exact hour of my birth. Obviously, it's not. Since I was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, USA at 9:15 a.m. (don't ask me how I know this, I do) it means that it won't REALLY be my birthday until 3:15 P.M. tomorrow. I mean, it's the middle of the afternoon on Sunday for you guys in California, right? But hey... My computer says it's my birthday, so it's my birthday. ;-) What's 9 hours difference over the span of 31 years? Nothing! Happy day!
Every four years on Jan. 20th, it's Inauguration Day for U.S. presidents, thus almost always you'll see "this day on" columns for my birthday invariably talk about this or that president taking office today. But on my exact birthday, Nixon was already in office and was giving a State of the Union speech to congress. Which, incredibly, is online in MP3 format which you can listen to here. Isn't that incredible? Several hours after I was born, Nixon gave that speech to the world. It's like going back in time. What's even better is this NPR broadcast from the same day, with interviews of people on the street, etc.
Getting philosophical now... hearing those broadcasts and seeing, hearing and reading things online from that day (do a Google search for your exact birth day some time, it's enlighting) makes me really realize the passage of time. Looking around at all the things that excite me so much - my computer and telephone, etc., and the things that concern me like wars and horrible presidents I realize it's all very fleeting. These things pass and life generally goes on. I don't remember anything about Nixon or the Vietnam war and hopefully, my baby boy won't remember anything about the things going on today either. Like my parents always say, "Time goes by so quickly." Which I think you realize more and more as you get older and have children. This is a good thing. :-)
I hope everyone else has a great day too!
-Russ