In six and a half hours I will have completed my 69th trip around the Sun and will begin the 70th.
It's awe inspiring and humbling.
Awe inspiring because of the things I've done in my life I'm extremely fortunate to be alive. Police patrolman, soldier, armored car messenger, freestyle rock climber, cocaine addict, lover of more than one married woman, so many endeavors that could have easily cut my life short.
But somehow, through luck and stupidity, I managed to cheat death just one more time.
Humbling, because nearly everyone around me with whom I enjoyed either love or a close friendship is dead. No parents, no lovers, no kids, no intimate friends. I'm not whining, that's just the way things have turned out. But it's humbling to think that all those who I once knew are either gone or have disappeared. I alone remain, and I hardly deserve it.
