I turned a year older today, a couple hours before I woke up at 2:30 AM to watch a baseball game. Although we’re conditioned to see turning a year older as bad, and certainly mortality creeping closer can be disconcerting, I like this new higher number next to my age. I promised myself I wouldn’t freak out over birthdays anymore the year I turned 30. My dad had died a few months earlier and things like that will make you realize what a gift it is to see that rising number.
I often wonder if I’d be a baseball fan without my dad’s influence.