A 2D Life in a 3D World.

Remember the 90s? I do, kind of. I remember when Star Wars was re-realeased in theaters and my uncle insisted the whole family go. Then there was the time my family went to Washington DC and I saw Men in Black at a mall theater. At some point there was a failed attempt at cub scouts and church league basketball but those are memories too deeply repressed to bring to light now. Happily, scattered amongst the Goosebumps books and doodles of monsters on my homework, there was a very pleasant childhood to be had there.

Now, thinking back on it, I am confronted with the fact that there were 24-year-olds in 1995. Somewhere on this floating pea-shaped celestial mass there was a 24 year old man doing, you know, 1995 things. Maybe he was listening to Gangsta's Paradise, or Boombastic, or (secretly) Kiss From a Rose. Maybe he was having his first taste of a life with bills and real responsibilities, just like my present-day self. I wonder if he was as excited about the Nintendo 64 as I was. Who knows?

All I do know is that 1995 was not that long ago and now that 24-year-old is 39. I don't know who or where he is but sometimes, when it gets very quiet, I can hear his sighing. It is a heavy sigh, but not one weighted with remorse or regret or a longing for what had and what could have been; it is weighted simply with age and experience. A noble sigh passing through the home of a common man. He puts his arms behind his head, leans back into his favorite chair and as he does, from somewhere else in the house he hears the stirring of his family. The corner of his mouth turns up involuntarily. His birthday is next week -- he'll be 40. How quick and beautiful is the pace he's been made to keep in getting here.