Given that I am beginning to draw close to contentment with my life and my life’s prospects, I have begun Project Toss Away Memories that I No Longer Need to Retain; this may include trinkets, notes, photos, coins, etc (for I can be a sentimental son of a bitch). In downsizing the contents of one of my dresser drawers, I found the following birthday note never addressed to the addressee. Given a few personal tell-tale clues, I think that I composed this in 2001 – 05 to a friend with whom I had fallen out of contact. All punctuation gaffs and stylistic enthusiasms are what I would have been guilty of back in those heady days.

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Happy Birthday! You probably thought that I would forget your birthday; that is, if you happened to entertain thoughts of me as you considered your birthday and another year that has passed. The silence has been awkward, but I am sure that in the meantime you have continued to approach and enter into the complexities, joys, frustrations, exaltations, ambiguities, and freedom of life. I guess that I have encountered much the same, although in much slower and less dramatic terms.  My god, how do you catch-up on life in a birthday greeting? You can’t, so please don’t be offended that I don’t and I won’t be disappointed that I can’t. I wish you the best this year and all the years to follow–whether they follow boldly, sheepishly, disorderly, silently, etc. What a thing it is to be alive! How do we stand it? Happy Birthday–Love and wonder!

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I think that I was probably listening to this song while composing it: