Here's to a relatively happy birthday

 It’s my 54th birthday. I started to take the day off. But that would be a cop-out. Who uses words like “cop-out” anymore? I mean besides me? Why not cop-in?

 For some reason 54 sounds old-er, as opposed to 53. Maybe that is because it is, but only slightly. If you were born at 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 27, 1955 and someone else was born at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 28, 1955, that wouldn’t really be older by much. But if you were born 11:59 p.m. on October 27, 1955, and someone else was born at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 1956, that still would only be older by one numeral, even if you were a couple of months older.

 Ages seem incogitable sometimes while at other times they appear so insignificant.

 A 100-year-old man chases down a 15-year-old thug of a purse snatcher and beats the teen silly. That’s unbelieveable. A 45-year-old kicks a 54-yard field goal in a pro football game. A 28-year-old kicker misses a 20-yard kick in the same game. So what?

 Probably the most signficant aspect of age as far as I have experienced it is in terms of times past and the memories that lie therein. Those memories extend from remembering my family’s first TV set, to a seemingly endless parade of DBs (dead bodies) I wish I hadn’t seen, to watching the sun set out at sea to seeing the sun rise from sitting on top of my roof out on the farm.

 The most disagreeable part of my aging is pain, although it has been around as a constant companion now since my early 30s. You can kill the pain for awhile, but it always comes back somewhere else ready to strike again at other locations on your body.

 What age seems most of all to me is relative. It’s hard to put your finger on some aspects of age. Over the weekend my old high school friends were still talking about the insignifica of our lives 35 years ago and it all seemed as fresh as a daisy. I just remembered a little while ago that it was four years ago and not five that I went to Austin for the Texas Book Fair. It was my 50th birthday. Duh!

I don’t know if that relativity will fade away as more years come and go. I sure hope it doesn’t.