You Say It's Your Birthday?

Just me, a few years ago.

Today is Bruce Springsteen's 69th birthday.

It's my birthday week too, yeah -- and the turn of another season (despite a friend's uncle, who always bemoans the end of summer at his family's July 4 barbecue).

I'm marking the occasion by listening to E Street Radio on Sirius, where Bruce once again stops singing "Thunder Road" to listen to the audience chant, "Show a little faith, there's magic in the night; you ain't a beauty but, hey, you're alright." He probably hasn't actually sung those words on stage in 20 years.

So happy birthday, Bruce, and thank you for reminding us that some things are forever young.

And thank you, Glenn Gould, the pianist who notably recorded Bach's "Goldberg Variations" early in his career in 1955 (yes, before even I was born). He then recorded the same music in a more soulful way as a mature artist in 1981.

Gould's honing of this performance over the years inspired Steve Jobs, and makes me wonder, too, if time really isn't as powerful a force as we fear.

Not everything corrupts. Some things -- like "Thunder Road" or the poetry of Yeats -- survive time in tact. Other things -- like Gould's "Goldberg Variations" or New York City -- evolve even grander over time.

I know, I know... as Bruce once sang, "Everything dies, baby, that's a fact."

But -- often on my birthday -- I grow in appreciation of a favorite line in the movie "American Beauty":

Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in.

https://thewildandthedarkness.tumblr.com/post/178374811799/bruce-1988-happy-birthday-boss