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What will you know on your next birthday that you don’t know today? What capability will you possess? We can decide to learn, and birthdays are helpful time markers. 

Of course, a lot of learning is not objective, meaning that the learning is less an object than a consequence of another pursuit. I think I’ve learned a lot since May 15th, 2016, and almost all of what I have learned has been the result of some other thing I was trying to do or something that happened and over which I had no control. 

Were not the only ones learning, either. The greatest gifts in my life in the past 12 months have been the hard-earned learnings of the people I care about the most. To get to share in another’s maturation is a beautiful experience for which you never feel fully worthy. The people I love have fought and endured things since my last birthday that none of us were anticipating. Their learning is a gift to me. So, happy birthday to me.