"Happy Birthday? No such thing......"

"Well, birthdays are merely symbolic of how another year has gone by and how little we've grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, with each flicker of the candles on the cake, we know it's not to be; that for the rest of our sad, wretched pathetic lives, this is who we are to the bitter end. Inevitably irrevocably; happy birthday? No such thing."-Jerry Seinfeld Seinfeld episode, "The Visa"

 You were born  in 1973 and will be turning forty this year or this month or tomorrow. What exactly was going down in the world when you decided to grace us with your presence?
 The Watergate Hearings began in the United States Senate and President Richard Nixon told the nation , “I am not a crook.”
Chrysler and other US car makers closed a number of plants affecting 100,000 workers.
Gas was 40 cents a gallon and you could purchase a dozen eggs for forty-five cents. The average cost of a new house was $32,500.00 and the average American workers salary was $12,900.00.
    U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam and the United States involvement in the Vietnam War ended.
   Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
Popular films include:
 The Exorcist,
 The Sting with Paul Newman  and Robert Redford
 Deliverance
  and American Graffiti directed by George Lucas featuring a very young Richard Dreyfuss and some kid named Ron Howard.

 Popular TV programs were The Partridge Family, The Price is Right, Columbo, The Odd Couple, the Waltons , M*A*S*H. and "School House Rock" made it's debut on ABC. (Check it out here) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-__GGvzmfXQ
 Popular music included  Sweden's ABBA, David Bowie, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, the Eagles, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones had one of many hits with "Angie". The number one album for most of 1973 was " The Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd.
 June 26th, 1973 the London production of Grease premieres. It also happens to be the premiere date of my brother Steve.
 Superbowl VII Miami beats the Washington Redskins.  The Braves, Hank Aaron hits his 700th homerun.  George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier by a knockout in two rounds to take the world's Heavyweight championship. Believe it or not it's HBO Boxing's first telecast.
 Richard Petty wins the Daytona 500 in the #43 Plymouth for Petty Enterprises.

So what does the face of forty look like? Try Mario Lopez, Paul Walker, Heidi Klum, Brady Smith, Jason Kidd, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kate Beckinsale and Jim Parsons, American television actor best known as the character Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory.


Turning forty is not a big deal unless you make it a big deal. Honor it. Own it. Instead of  feeling intense regret over what "should a, could a, would a.. have been" or spending months in somber reflection get over your SELF. Be happy you are here to celebrate another day. Truthfully, if you think you're old at forty you are going to have a hell of shitfest time aging. And all of us are aging. So if you want to define all of your deepest human emotional experiences on this extraordinarily unique journey by a simple set of BS digits be my guest. But I wouldn't waste valuable time. You have family to love, things to do and see. Get on with it.  Happy Birthday! Love you!