Talk of Anniversaries and Synchronicities

 

Today is the nineteenth anniversary of Jeff's and my marriage. (There we both are, squinting in the sun). Birthdays and anniversaries are weird things, because when you're forced to contemplate them you end up saying things like "Gosh, it doesn't seem that long--but then again it does." And of course that doesn't really mean anything.

As ever, we were too broke to do anything really lavish, but we went on a date yesterday, and that was fun. Sometimes it's nice to remind yourself why you married a person, especially when you have to spend your evenings sternly discussing the consequences for what the children did THIS time. :)

As I perused the net looking for other anniversaries on this day (all I found was Kirk and Anne Douglas, who married in 1954), I realized some ironic comparisons.

For one, I graduated from high school on this date in 1983; five years later exactly (but not by design), I got married. Then, while I was celebrating a ninth anniversary with my Jeff Buckley in 1997, another Jeff Buckley died.

It was the birthday of both John F. Kennedy and Bob Hope; it was also the day that, in 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and his sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, reached the summit of Mt. Everest--they were the first to do so. It also happened to be Norgay's birthday. He was born on May 29, 1914.

I suppose we all have our Everests in life, but Tenzing's birthday accomplishment would be pretty hard to beat.