Today is my birthday.  I make no secret of my age; I am more than 40 and less than 100.

Please don't place any "happy birthday" wishes on this site.  We don't make a fuss about my birthday in our house, so there's no reason for you to do so.  When people say "happy birthday" to me, I respond with, "What's the big deal?  I'm only a day older than I was yesterday."

In some societies, it is customary to give other people presents on one's birthday instead of receiving them.  I think this is a great idea.  A few people I know deserve presents for having put up with me for as long as they have.  My wife certainly does.  My parents would too if they were still alive.

The best thing I can hope for as I continue to get older is to still be having fun.  So far, I think I've accomplished that.  I'm having more fun now, it seems, than I did when I was younger.  Perhaps that's because I don't waste much time worrying about matters over which I have no control; they will take care of themselves.  Perhaps it's because I have defined "fun" a little differently.  It's not the woop-dee-doo kind of fun anymore.  I can find fun in everyday tasks.  Even a nice nap is fun.

I'll spend a good part of this day correcting student compositions.  It would be going too far to call that fun, but I can still look on the brighter side.  At least I still have the mental capacity to do it.

If I live to be much older, people may start to ask me to what I attribute my longevity.  I'll probably tell them that the secret is to stay alive.  That may sound like a simplistic answer, but there's wisdom behind it.  That wisdom is to not make explanations more complicated than they need to be.

Speaking of wisdom, I'm convinced that I'm wiser but not smarter.  Being smart consists in part of feeling that we know a great deal.  The older I get, the more I recognize how clueless I am.  That's wisdom.  Only fools think that they have all or most of the answers.

One of the benefits of getting older is that other people expect less of us.  We can say and do pretty much as we damned well please because others think that we have become senile and don't know any better.  We do, but we don't care.  Inside, we're quietly amused that other people think that we don't know any better.  Because we find this misconception quite liberating, we aren't about to let on that it's untrue.

Younger folks will think I'm nuts.  People my age and older will know exactly what I'm talking about.  Both will be right.

So happy birthday to me.  I'm already enjoying it so much that I think I'll have another tomorrow . . . and the next day . . . and the next.