Happy Birthday. You’re halfway to 60.
Look, I know that time is an illusion. That our limited brains see one slice of spacetime at once, rather than the whole thing.
And I know that Earth’s time-around-its-star time is only special to we Earthly surface-dwellers. Deep sea creatures have never heard of day or night, let alone a year.
And yeah, our closest star neighbor, Proxima Centauri, has a planet that orbits it like the moon orbits us—one side always facing the sun, with shadows that never move. The beings there live where the sun is always low in the sky and the clouds are always pink. When their early explorers traveled into Night, they couldn’t believe their eyes—dots in the sky! Like tiny suns! And… the dots move. (In fact, they circle around and go back to where they were in 11.2 Earth days. That’s their year.) I’m sure that shook things up. If they had anything like the Medieval Catholic Church, some of those explorers, for making such heretical claims, lived truncated lives.
I know all this about time and its counting, and it brings me some comfort. “30 years” is just, like, your opinion, man!
But last Tuesday I woke up 30, and despite all these things I know, it still felt significant. Because, you know, the particular way that it’s counted might not carry significance across all species and planets, but it certainly carries significance to us!
And what is the significance of 30? Well, I’m almost to the halfway point. Or already past it, depending on how you count. Much of this show is now over.
So it begins
People live life at all different speeds; I also take comfort in that. Some don’t make their mark on the world until their 60s. Some never make a dent in the universe at all, and that’s ok.
Me? Half my life ago, I thought I’d make a name for myself within five years. University was going to be pointless for me, because I’d be a famous rock star.
I think I’ve always thought great things were just around the corner. Give it five years, my life was going to look super different and super awesome. Maybe “growing up” is learning to let go of those delusions of grandeur/ambitions.
Well dangit I’m #stillambitious. A little more tempered in it, now. More realistic expectations about how much time and work anything takes. But I do want to make a mark on the world. I want to leave society and the planet better than how I found them. I want to inspire people.
And here I am, at the start of #decade4. So it begins.
