I have just received a very nice birthday greeting from a friend newly introduced to computers. I thanked her but began to think about the importance of MY birth-date.  September 10, 1926, was just before the Atlantic crossing of solo pilot, Charles Lindberg. It also was just before the Black Friday inauguration of the crash of the Stock Market. The whole notion of fallibility of buying and selling stocks instead of building furniture, plowing fields and making gimcracks was missed.

I have had many other better days in my life than the minutes out of the day my mother ended her pain of parturition. I remember nothing of this time and I trust my entry into the world was as happy for my parents, sister and relatives as folklore says it should be.  There are too many children in the world today who are born into deprivation and neglect while most of us think only of the significance of our own umbilical.

A much better day that I remember is the time I came home from school chanting, “I can read”.  That has remained with me to this moment when I type out this story. If leaving the birth canal liberates the individual from the mother, then the knowledge of how to read liberates whole civilizations from barbarism.

I have had great experiences in learning how the world works.  In the Boy Scouts I learned knots and how to make fire and cook food over it. These were transforming experiences.  I learned how to make an airplane that actually flew until it landed in a tree and broke into its component parts.  I learned how to whittle, how to whistle and how to play the harmonica and then on to the guitar and banjo.  I was one of those who saw the gyrations of and heard the sounds of Elvis Presley and said “If he can do that, so can I.”

There are so many more important dates than the day on which I was born.  I would hope that most of my days made life worth living for me, mine and the hosts of students who passed through my classes.

As for my notions of religion, I have found no great comfort in an all seeing, all knowing, omniscient, omnipresent supernatural being.  I think that the days I meet decent people in the world who share my views are much better than my natal day.  As for knowing I am male in a world with two sexes, I worship the differences and bless the fact that I was given the day, March 10, 1978 when I met my beloved, talented and infinitely patient wife.