The photograph was –I believe– taken on my fifth birthday. John bought the cake at the annual Rotary Radio Auction. I’m guessing it was created by Causbie’s Bakery and intended for a wedding. But it made a hell of birthday cake. This image captures the essence of the 50’s for me. Ward, June and the Beaver. Seemed fitting for tomorrow’s 56th birthday. Christ, (sorry, Mel) how is it possible I have a photograph of myself that’s more than half a century old?

Lesson learned during the past year? It’s a good thing to count your blessings but you can’t use the math you learned as a child. I have all of these wonderful birthday presents, so if I break or lose one, it’s okay because I have so many more. One would think. Unfortunately, you might have one hundred items in the Blessings column and just one in the Other column…and find you are overdrawn in your Life Book. One drop of pain can be so concentrated, it needs an ocean of Good Things to dilute it. And it never goes away entirely. How did I miss this awful truth?