Birthdays: What Do You Do When You See Your Age On A Speed Limit Sign?

"Happy Birthday to You" is allegedly one of the most popular songs and certainly someone will wake up every morning somewhere to this melody and even if he or she won't appreciate the singer's ability, hopefully, there will be gratitude for the words.

In 1893, two sisters, Patty and Mildred Hill, wrote this song. Patty, a principal at a school for young children, wrote the lyrics and Mildren, a pianist and teacher, wrote the music. The song was originally entitled, "Good Morning to You," and was intended for kindergarteners.

In 1912, "Happy Birthday to You" was seen in print and it wasn't until 1935, that the sisters were given credit for developing this song. And, even though this song is so traditional and we are so conditioned to sing it to our children or grandchildren or friends, isn't it great when it's sung to you at any age?

Well, okay, today was my birthday. This is probably the only birthday that felt edgy during my lifetime so far. I'm driving to work this morning and the same sign I pass every morning during the week catches my eye in a different light. It is screaming my age. I am not 65, nor 70.

Look at the sign to your right. Doesn't it look like it's screaming at you? During my lifetime, I've passed other signs. Yes, there was a slight transition between 29 and 30, but the 30 mph sign had no effect on me, nor did the 40 mph sign. I loved my 40s. I still feel like I'm 31, so why did this sign affect me so much? Is it because I'm going to be 50 in five years? All my friends are in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s.

All I know is this for now, I'll never look at that sign the same again. In my style of humor, it did not represent to me some antiaging product.

Even if I was born in '55, which I wasn't, and needed to lose 55 lbs., which I do not, then turning 55 would make it a cool year? Indulge me.

What is so ugly about turning 55? What is so ugly about birthdays? I know people in their 20s who cringe at turning 30. Over the years, I have heard people in their 30s not enjoy turning 40. I loved my 40s, and I went into my 50s having the same "living" attitude. But that sign was saying, "Hey, you're 55 now!"

Birthdays are as ugly as you want them to be. Being offended at mail that suddenly starts arriving about senior citizen discounts is a choice. Turning my age has convinced me that I'm not leaving life tomorrow. I'll probably write another hub about a different subject. Problems that don't belong to you don't have to take up space in your mind--another choice. If you have children who are grown, you have earned the privilege of being selfish with your choices. Mix current wisdom with that 31-year-old mind and better choices are made. Maybe I should say I'm 31 with 24 years of experience so far.

I'm over 50 now and I don't feel any different than I did 20 years ago on most subjects. I am still not opposed to change because I can adapt. I still have days when I'm crabby, but am the first to warn people. I'm part Asian, Native American and a big pinch of Irish, so I have no wrinkles. When someone learned my age tonight, I was actually asked, "Why don't you have wrinkles?"

I think the ugly about birthdays comes from the material we read and the media with its conditioning that we need to look younger, or what to do if we want to look younger. I usually tell people that everyday's a birthday if you can climb out of bed without help and you're still relatively healthy and promote activities to ensure that state of well being continues.

People go back to college in their 50's. Good for them! I think, at best, you keeping adding to your living to-do list to ensure you do all those things you want to do when you can, because you can, or at least plan to reach that goal to say you did what you set out to do.

When you're in your 20s, you think you have all the time in the world. When you're in your 30s, you think, "okay, I didn't do that yet, there's still time." If you're like me, when you reached your 40s, you did do some of those things. The things left to do are taken more seriously in your 50s.

I climb my mountains and I'm just not quite ready to stop climbing. Sometimes I might feel like I'm on one and don't see there are some I have to climb to get to the next one, but I'll do it. So, as far as I can tell, the only ugly thing about a birthday would be when they stop coming.