A Birthday to Remember

Yesterday marked 31 years since I came into this fine world at Georgetown University Hospital in DC. By any right, a 31st birthday should be wholly unremarkable, especially as it follows directly on the heels of the big Three-Oh. Fate and the bonds of human relationships, however, conspired to make this birthday a spectacular one.

This weekend Anette made me a delicious chocolate cake that we decorated with little silver balls of sugar which, when spilled from their box, danced happily all over our floor. Yesterday she made me lasagna, and after dinner, presented me with some very clever birthday gifts. Norwegians will know the author Erlend Loe, whose 'Naiv. Super.' I fell in love with this fall. The protagonist is a young man in his mid-20s going through various crises of identity, nerves and faith. He ultimately finds two things that help him to get his thoughts in order: 1) throwing a ball; and 2) hammering pegs into place on a child's hammer bench, then flipping the bench over and starting again.

So can anyone guess what my first present was? A colorful hammer bench for children 18 months and older! If you haven't read the book, you'll probably think we're crazy, but it was truly a stroke of genius on Anette's part to think of that gift. And no, I'm not going through any identity crises at the moment, Loe's sense of humor simply delights us.

A hammer bench would have been more than enough to suffice, but when I checked my facebook page, I was amazed to see my wall full of birthday greetings, mostly from former students at Berkeley High. Having been out of touch in Tanzania for so long, I was genuinely moved by this electronic outpouring of love from halfway around the world. Only rarely have I experienced the feeling of having so many friends from so many different phases of my life converge at one moment. On top of this, video and phone calls from my American and Norwegian families left me feeling deeply happy and grateful.

Finally, buoyed by the positive energy that was sent my way, I had a wonderful teaching day today (even filmed the dialogue game - reprazent my CAS kids who created it) and came home to yet another surprise. When I walked out of the tube station, I could barely see the houses on either side of the street because of the pea-soup fog that had suddenly descended on North London. Coincidence that Anette also gave me the new BBC version of Sherlock Holmes? I think not! I didn't even take off my coat when I came in the door, I just grabbed our camera and headed out into the mystery, where I stood alone in the center of Finsbury Park taking eerie pictures and video, the best of which I post for your enjoyment, along with a picture of my new hammer bench.