Good Post

February 10, 2009

It was my birthday last Friday. I’ve never been a big birthday celebrator. I know some folks revel in the attention and turn their birthdays into weeklong celebrations. However, I never enjoyed the attention. That’s odd, isn’t it? This comes from a guy who devoted twelve years of his life to acting. Everyone knows actors are yin-yang swirls of raw, untenderized insecurity and mammoth delusional ego. The only way I can explain this contradiction is that the attention I received as an actor was always for playing a role or inhabiting a character. I’m actually fairly shy in my Jon persona. Every year on my birthday, I slink into the background and pretend it is like any other day until the queasiness passes.

However, this year was different. This birthday had the effervescence and sweetness of warm spun cotton candy. What changed? Friends, there were a couple of times last year when it wasn’t a gimmie that I’d have another birthday. Sheesh, that sounds melodramatic, doesn’t it? The truth is I spent a fair amount of time in the hospital. Between dealing with kidney failure and then later discovering a giant blood clot that spanned from my right jugular to my elbow, there were a couple of times...let’s just say it was more serious than my wife and I let on to friends and family. It’s such a cliché, but there’s nothing like a little glimpse into the abyss to make you appreciate life. So, I’m very happy to celebrate a birthday and grow older. It feels damn good.