for a while now i've viewed my birthday in terms of landmarks: bar mitzvah, drivers license, ability to vote, ability to drink, ability to serve in the house of representatives, ability to be senator, traditional age to be crucified after founding a major religion, ability to be president. many of those thing--particularly the latter ones--i never intended to do. but they still served as landmarks of sorts to my growing up. or at least to getting older. with each birthday i would note whatever landmark i had reached and look to the next one to see what was still to come. i never really made a conscious decision to look at my birthdays that way, but i did it anyway. indeed, both of my prior birthday posts were landmark-centered.
which is why turning 36 today is kind of odd. i seem to have run out of landmarks. well, not completely. i still have pension-related landmarks to come (i.e. qualification for social security and retirement eligibility under various pension plans). but those dates are decades away and i can't say i'm particularly looking forward to them.
so it seems that this year's landmark is that it marks the beginning of my trip through the long desert of landmarkless birthdays. which isn't really a problem. i've milked this landmark thing for a while now. it's time for a new perspective. hopefully i will manage to come up with one before #37.
