Anniversaries
Somehow the subject of anniversaries (of all sorts) has been coming up a lot lately.
For example, July 4th (although I failed entirely to notice this as it went by, for the first time) was the fifth anniversary of the day that I met both Mary Anne and Cat Faber; 7/4/97 was an auspicious day indeed. (It was also the day after Alex's first suicide attempt—which was indirectly a factor in my meeting Mary Anne. Long story. At any rate, that meant it was also a rather stressful day.)
June 27th (which I also failed to notice as it went by) was the second anniversary of our receiving our first submission at SH. We've had about 3600 submissions since then, and recently have been averaging about 190 a month (up from about 150 a month a year ago), so by the end of September we should reach our 4000th submission. The beginning of September, of course, will mark the 2nd anniversary of the launch of the magazine.
There are a couple of birthdays coming up this coming week; those are important anniversaries too. Yay birthdays!
Which obliquely reminds me to mention Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology, formerly known as Real Astrology. I'm not in any way a believer in astrology—my usual disproof is a friend of mine who was born on the same day of the same year as I was, within 100 miles of me, and yet is very unlike me in a variety of ways—but I often like reading what Brezsny has to say. He's a bit of a nut—I say that fondly—but he's also a wise man, something of a holy fool, and he manages to convey both a deep belief in what he's doing and an irreverent skepticism at the same time. (He even suggested at one point that people read through all twelve of the week's horoscopes and pick the one they felt was most appropriate to them.) On his intro page for the horoscopes, he writes:
Do the planets control our fates? Are we merely puppets of cosmic forces? Not in my view. I believe the study of astrology can be a liberating force, alerting us to our own unconscious motivations and revealing the long-term cycles in our lives. In offering you my weekly horoscopes, I aspire to unleash the power of your imagination to create the destiny you want. It is in that spirit that I named this column "Free Will Astrology." I hope it serves as a continual reminder that you are always the boss of you.
Let's see. There was another anniversary somewhere in there, wasn't there? Oh, there was Brynnen's first birthday (happy birthday, Brynnen!), and Bastille Day (which I've always had a fondness for, ever since it featured prominently in a roleplaying game I once ran, set in an alternate Europe very loosely inspired by Mary Rosenblum's "Water Bringer" stories), and various wedding anniversaries. But I thought there was something else, and now I can't think of it. Oh, well, it'll come to me.