Sunday, February 24, 2019

A Birthday Meditation

Greetings, Internet friends and neighbors, and the occasional relative who from time-to-time drops in this way, leaving not a trace of their presence!

(This is not the Appalachian Trail, guys, you ARE permitted to leave some sign behind.)

Today is my first-born son's birthday. Here's what I wrote him:


First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Second, some meandering pursuit of whatever interesting things pop out with consideration of ages.
I was born in 1953; this year, I will celebrate my 66th birthday.You, my firstborn son, were born 30 years later, in 1983, and this year (this day!) you celebrate your 36th birthday.Heath Jordan, your first-born son, my first-born grandson, was born 30 years after that, in 2013, and he has celebrated his 6th birthday.


6; 36; 66.


What fun can we have with those numbers?


Well, let's factor Heath's Age: (HA)= 6 = 2 x 3. Nice and simple. The first two prime numbers.


Your age, YA = 36, gives a BIT more to play with, because your age, YA =HA*HA, or HA 2
YA = 6 2= 6 * 6 = 2 * 3 * 2 * 3, or 2 2 * 3 2 : The squares of the first two prime numbers; that's nice, isn't it?


My age (MA) , 66, has given me a bit more of a thought problem.
At first glance, it resolves into MA = 2 * 3 * 11, which is ACCURATE, yet strangely unsatisfying.


I wish to celebrate the resonance of father age as a function of first-born son!

Viewed that way, MA = YA + 30 = YA + (6 * 5) = YA = 2 * 3 * 5.
So:
HA = 2 * 3YA = 2 2 * 3 2MA = 2 2 * 3 2 + (2 * 3 * 5)

...and that allows me to participate more fully in the celebration of my first-born son as well as HIS first-born son. And while I recognize that this is merely a case of personal satisfaction, and doubtlessly blesses no one else, it DOES compel me to reflect on the miracle of your birth for just a bit more than a simple card would have done.


Happy birthday, first-born son. If I had done nothing else in my life than be your father, it would have been enough.
Papa 

And thus endeth the morning's ramblings.

Peace be on your household.

2 comments:

  1. How interesting. I, too, was born in 1953, and my first natural born son in 1983. Alas, the story ends there, since his wife cannot conceive - at any rate, they weren't married early enough to have a six year old son.

    ReplyDelete