Happy birthday to me, from me

It's my birthday tomorrow. I'll be a super-young 73, using my personal definition of super-young.

(I'm reading a humorous book about growing older -- Stupid Things I Won't Do When I Get Old --  that says two answers to the question "When does old begin?" are "Old age is my current age +4" and "Tomorrow. Always tomorrow. Never today.)

At any rate, I'm in pretty good shape. As evidence I present this photo of me in the Big Meadow at Black Butte Ranch in central Oregon, where my wife and I own a 1/4 share in a vacation home. That's Black Butte in the background, a pleasingly extinct volcano.

My mother died at 73. But she was an alcoholic who didn't exercise much, smoked a lot her entire life, didn't eat very healthily, and suffered several strokes well before she was my age. She would have been much better off smoking marijuana rather than tobacco; sadly, cannabis legalization came too late for her, but in time for me.

So by comparison, I'm doing pretty damn well.

And even though I've only just started reading the book linked to above, it's encouraging that I've been able to avoid some of the stupid things the author advises old folks to avoid. Like, double-spacing after periods, which made sense in the age of manual typewriters but not today, and not using an AOL or Yahoo email address. 

(I was an early adopter of Gmail. Sadly, though, another Brian Hines was an even earlier adopter, so I've had to make do with [email protected] while I wait for my namesake who doesn't need to use a number after his name to die and bequeath me his email address. Hey, I can dream.)

I guess I should try to come up with some philosophical wisdom to justify a Church of the Churchless blog post about my impending birthday.

Well, comparing current me with younger me, I'd say that the biggest change in how I view myself in relation to the universe is that I no longer am nearly as grandiose. Meaning, I used to believe that one day I'd be privy to the deepest mysteries of the cosmos.

Through all the daily meditation I did since 1970, and the guidance of an Indian guru, my consciousness would soar to higher regions of reality and I'd know divine secrets that other unenlightened souls could only dream of comprehending. Of course, I also was proud of my humility.

Now, my goal is to be able to remember for as long as possible how the three remote controls for our television, Apple TV, and DirecTV satellite receiver work together so I can continue to perform my manly duty of taking charge of our evening viewing of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and other streaming services.

Thus far, I'm handling all that with senior citizen technological perfection. Plus, I can make my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro function well (except when they don't, but then it's Apple's fault, in my own mind at least).

One of the best things about growing old is that you don't worry nearly as much about attaining grand milestones.

Maybe I'll write another book someday, but I'm fine with the four books I've already written. My wife and I have been married for 31 years. I'm much happier than I was in my 18-year first marriage, so there's no pressure to work on our relationship, though I've got work to do on loading the dishwasher the way Laurel likes.

I still go to three Tai Chi classes a week -- Tai Chi has been a part of my life for 17 years -- and work out at a gym three times also. However, I'm good with maintaining the weights I'm currently capable of lifting, while in my younger days I was always trying to handle heavier weights.

I guess this is part of life after 70.

You have a more realistic perspective. You grasp that if you can just keep on doing what you enjoy doing for as long as possible, that's plenty good enough. I want to make the world better insofar as I can. However, I don't expect that the fate of the world, the United States, Oregon, Salem, or our neighborhood in any way depends on me.

That said, every day I drive by about a hundred acres of farmland just north of our neighborhood that was slated to become a subdivision before my wife and I led a complex, costly, five-year fight to stop it because all those houses would have threatened our neighborhood wells and the springs that feed a community lake.

That successful effort taught me the value of doing concrete things in this physical world, rather than wasting time on religious imaginings of what a supposed supernatural realm might be like. Stopping the bulldozers was hugely more fulfilling than pretending I was a spiritual being destined for life in "heaven" (Eastern religion variety).

Anyway, these are my birthday eve thoughts. My wife just finished baking a birthday cake, so tomorrow evening will be devoted more to my stomach and less to my mind. 

Comments

[Pema Tej]

Happy Birthday Brian, may you continue to enjoy your life✨🙏😊
Greetings from Bangkok

[manjit]

Happy Birthday Brian, hope you have a lovely day!

Manjit

[Dungeness]

Happy Birthday, Brian San, and thank you for a wonderfully enlightening
Dojo where we can all joust. Now about double spacing after periods...
I say there's demonstrable evidence that your eyes need them but, but,
oh, never mind...

[Appreciative Reader]

Many happy returns, Brian!

[Tendzin]

Suggested title revision: From RSSB to NIMBY

[Uchit]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN

Keep up the good work exposing fake gurus like Gurinder Singh Dhillon and RSSB. Keep a check on the RSSB agents that like to recruit new members on from this very site.

[Manoj]

BRIAN HAVE A LOVELY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
BEST WISHES!

I see you're doing just great since you left Gurinder Singh Dhillion & Radha Soami Cult.
Always good to throw out the trash

Living a Life of freedom and Living it on your terms too, beautiful

Have a good one and thanks for all your hard work, putting up with us all 😊

[Sonia]

Happy Birthday, Brian!

I enjoyed the levity of your post. Libra (according to astrologers) is the most contradictory of all the zodiac signs. Librans are really easy going and take on a “live and let live” attitude towards life. But if you disturb their protected peace they will destroy you. 😂 That’s a generalization but it holds true more often than not.

Of course, most of us have birth charts made up of multiple zodia signs. Not me—I’m almost all Libra.

Oh, but life is all about learning… We will be learning lessons till the day we die. That’s what keeps us humble and makes life exciting. Accepting our imperfections and understanding that we are here to works towards improving things (not to be perfect) helps us not take our selves so seriously that it makes us uncomfortable. A life without laughter is not much of a life.

Wishing you all the best and much laughter.

[albert]

Thanks for the many years of interesting posts and viewpoints, Brian. All the best to you and yours on the completion of your 73rd year and a safe entrance into your 74th.

Keep up the great work...Much Love, Al

[Sonia]

(the big life lesson for Librans is Life is not Fair). After you accept that, life gets much easier.

Always pay it forward… not backwards. That’s the only way to make any sort of difference. Like say, creating a blog where people can communicate new ideas and grow and learn something new—each in their own way. 😉 That’s pretty cool. Thanks!!!

[Spence Tepper]

Happy Birthday, Brian!

You are a wonderful internet blogger and philosopher, and friend.

I respect your sense of self worth based in part on doing good, such as the environmental protest you waged successfully.

Others, myself included, might have thought there would be no way to fight a large monied development corporation.

That was inspiring.

As well as your humility and practical view of your own human limitations, which we all share and can relate to.

Personally, I take solace that no matter how many efforts I make may prove flawed or inadequate, there is a place of peace, love and inspiration I can turn to. And even a value system that says going there is the only important thing. Or even more now importantly, merely the act of trying to go there is all that counts, However limited my successes and plentiful my failures.

That puts my whole life into a smaller context, being part of something much larger.

"God loves me" is very powerful for me, and humbling, knowing God loves everyone. It inspires me to pray "Teach me, Father, how to love everyone, as You do."

It is precisely because of my limited mind that I accept Faith as real and essential, because I must have Faith in most everything anyway.

[a]

Hey Spence...that was lovely, true, humble and inspiring.

We give our best energy to our mind and egos unknowingly. The perfect Soul is buried in all the intellectual pride, machinations, whims, caprices, hedonism, pride and self-aggrandizement of the mind.

It's high time to call uncle on our individual minds...the impostrous and fraudulent self. By being emotionally honest about your shortcomings and flaws, Spencer, you have provided a stellar example of humility...a character trait that is woefully lacking in these corrupt times.

Thanks so much.