If, hypothetically, someone were turning 40 years old today (entirely hypothetically), you could imagine all sorts of soul searching going on. After all Tom Good used the occasion of his 40th birthday to quit his job and try his hand at self-sufficiency “right here in Surbiton”. They used to say that life begins at 40, but now it appears that everyone seems to think that 50 is the new 30 and suddenly if you happen to be turning 40 you might be forgiven for imagining yourself to be lost in a vast ageless wasteland where life has neither begun nor ended.

In fact, it is fair to say that this whole idea of turning 40 is a bit of a misnomer:

It would be more accurate to say that he is about to fall 40, as in fall asleep, or fall in love, as there is really nothing that the faller can do about it. It might be even more accurate to say he has been afflicted or stricken with 40, but then that would suggest that there might possibly be a cure, and as we all know there isn’t. Turning 40 is unavoidable.

However, I think that most right-thinking individiuals would agree that numerical age is immaterial if you continue to insist on acting as though you were 15. And if you do manage to achieve two score years, then surely you can point to all of the things that you have accumulated over the years - wisdom, learning, experience, a selection of dogs, a mortgage, several jobs both paid and unpaid (often at the same time), a loving wife (who may, it is true, be mistaken for a homsexual life partner from time to time - but only by those that have never met her.) And you would be well within your senses to proclaim achieving this milestone as a great triumph of the human spirit.

In the end, regardless of the confused ideas, emotions and thoughts that turning 40 might prompt in you, friends and family (including the afore-mentioned wife/life partner) might take it as an excuse to tell you that we love you, that we like sharing our lives with you, that we admire your wit, wisdom, passion and achievement and that we look forward to the next 40 years.

Happy birthday Phil.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 10:57 am by dan and is filed under us. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.