Today I turned 35 years old. I suppose I should be writing about how it feels, but it really feels a lot like turning 20 or 25. Life is good--really good. I think if you can go into the next year of your life still being able to say that, then the number of candles on the cake doesn't really seem to matter. That's all I really have to say about turning 35.

I was listening to an interesting interview on NPR this evening. It was with an author, teacher, philospher named Azar Nafisi. Something she said struck me, because it dealt with the issue of "betweens" or edges. She was talking about a painter who embodied something about America that wasn't often portrayed--not only in our culture and media, but in how other countries portray us. We aren't a society full of heroic adventurers, or even a society full of loud-mouthed egotistical louts. It was inbetween those, in the forgotten places where people lived in isolation...in loneliness despite the "loudness" of our society. From those places came works of art (be it painting or writing) that had something important to say. Now, I'm paraphrasing in the extreme, this isn't a quote, but the gist of what I heard.

It reminded me of something I used to think about a lot. People seem to live for high moments in their lives...the peaks. But the truth of the matter is that most of life isn't in the peaks, its on the way down from the peaks, or on the way up from its lowest lull. Its much like the medieval notion of the wheel of fortune. If you were on top, you'd best hang on because with one flick of Fate's wrist, you were apt to be on the bottom. If you were on the bottom, just hang on because there was no where to go but up--the only way off was when life was over. Life isn't on the peaks, it isn't even in the lowest points, most of life is spent inbetween the two. So what does all that mean to me? Enjoy the peaks when you reach them but don't get comfortable, don't stress over the lows because it has to get better, but most importantly, find the real joys in the inbetweens.