Friday, November 18, 2005

You Say It's Your Birthday...

it's my birthday too, yeah. I'm fifty-two. (Look here.)

UPDATE: Since posting this, I've been a bit chastened by the memory of this line from John Lennon's 1975 song, "Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out)":
Everybody's hollerin' 'bout their own birthday
Hmmm

11 comments:

Richard Lawrence Cohen said...

Have a wonderful birthday, Mark, in return for all the wonderful thoughts and feelings you've shared with us.

Mark Daniels said...

Richard:
Thank you.

I promise to be there to comfort you after your school loses tomorrow.

Mark
The Ohio State University,
Class of 1975

Lhombre said...

Mucho Cumpleanos! Have a great day Mark!

I share your enthusiasm for music,especially the Beattles and Bob Dylan. Although I played primarily jazz as a musician, it was the spirit in the approach to their music that propelled my own love for all genres of music. Hope the tunes ring loud for your special day.

And...thank you for the comment on my post. I did respond there too. I look forward to checking in on your post in future days.

Deborah White said...

Happy birthday, Mark!

Have you ever wondered why mid-November is one of the most popular times for US birthdays? This Nov 15 baby was over 40 because I figured it out....

Two words: Valentines Day. I will the rest to your good mind.

Rick Moore said...

Happy Birthday Mark! You don't look a day over...er, 52.

Mark Daniels said...

Rick:
Thanks, I think.

Seriously, have a great weekend at the band competition. I hope that all goes well.

Blessings!
Mark

reader_iam said...

Happy Birthday, Mark!! I hope you're having way too much fun this evening to get this until tomorrow.

And I'm going to have fun looking around here.

Regards!

Phil Gerbyshak said...

Happy Birthday Mark! Thanks for everything. You've got a great blog, and a great feel on the pulse of what we all need (though may not always want) to hear.

Here's to 52 more great ones!

Alexander M. Jordan said...

Happy Birthday, Mark!

If you can still dance around to that Beatle song you're doing good!

And don't listen to John on that one, he was, after all, "down and out" at the time.

Blessings,

Alex

Mark Daniels said...

reader, Phil, and Alex:
Thanks to all of your for leaving birthday greetings. I was thinking that mentioning my day might seem, you know, needy. But it is a pretty significant milestone and seemed worthy of mention. (All my birthdays are milestones now.)

Anyway, if others are reading these comments out there, please note that all the commenters on this post have blogs, dealing with disparate subjects. They're all such interesting people that I'm sure you'll want to check out their sites:

Richard is a wonderful writer with several novels and many short stories to his credit. He's also a devoted family man and I would say, a spiritual explorer. It's been a genuine honor being able to correspond with Richard over time and getting to know what a great person he is. I'm hoping that one day we'll get the chance to actually meet. I imagine we won't lack for topics of conversation! He lives in Austin and does a lot of freelance writing.

Dan (lhombre) is an artist and, whether he knows it or not, a fine poet, a good friend of Richard's. And, I would say that based on his most recent post, he's a person of extraordinary courage who has a lot to teach the rest of us, lessons born of the crucible of experience.

Deborah too, is a fine writer, equally competent writing political commentary or poignant and interesting personal reflections. She is a committed Christian and a pro-life liberal Democrat. (For those who think that all those terms are oxymoronic, I present Robert Kennedy and the late Pennsylvania governor Casey as evidence to the contrary.) She too, is a devoted family person. She also happens to be one of my most encouraging cheerleaders, telling me that there will come a day when my writing will be published by someone other than Blogger.com.

Rick is the blogger at HolyCoast. He probably only lives a few miles from Deborah. He too is a committed Christian, but unlike Deborah, ardently conservative in his politics. I met Rick at the recent GodBlogCon gathering in L.A. (actually La Mirada) and was immediately attracted to his humility, sense of humor, intelligence, and good nature. He too, is a dedicated family person. (A pattern is emerging.) This weekend, he and his wife are cheering their two children on as they and the high school marching band of which they're a part are involved in a major competition. (Rick is also known to do a bit of singing!)

reader is someone I've gotten to know through the comments sections at Ann Althouse's blog site. I'm just making her acquaintance, but her new blog is off to a great start. So far, I know that she's an intelligent person and an active Epicopal layperson.

Phil has an intriguing site I've just been exploring. It looks at goal-setting. He's written a book about which I hope to learn more.

Alex is another blogger I met at GodBlogCon. In fact, we met at LAX, while awaiting the shuttle bus that took us to our hotel on the day the conference began. Alex is a really interesting guy: thoughtful, reflective, considerate, a deeply committed Christian. An English major at Syracuse University, he now works as an editor for a major medical journal. He also composes music and like me, is a mega-Paul McCartney fan. He and his wife, who have been married for five years, live in New York City.

All of these folks are terrific writers, each with their own styles. So, click on their names, find their sites, and go do some good reading.

Thanks again to all for your birthday greetings.

Blessings in Christ,
Mark

Mark Daniels said...

Tamar:
Thank you so much for your greetings!

And Other Readers:
Take some time today to check out Tamar's site. She always has interesting things to say, the byproduct of a most interesting life. She too, is a writer, on her field of Education.

Blessings, Tamar!

Mark