On this fateful day in the mid-1960s a world-changing event took place.

I was born.

Perhaps that didn’t change the world a lot, but it was actually pretty important for me. I think it also meant a lot to my parents, and my siblings rue the day it happened.

In the grand scheme of things, of course, the birth of one person rarely makes much of a difference. If you have a purely materialist view of the universe the life or death of one person doesn’t mean very much. You see this expressed–as everything can be–in a common meme:

True enough, in a sense. The universe is billions of years old, and will likely be around for trillions more before the eventual heat death (or recollapse if the big bang/big crunch is the life cycle of things), and at most, we each have a century or so. A single bee has more significance to a hive than any one of us does to the universe’s fate.

But that is only one perspective, and not really one that is relevant to us in any meaningful way. We live our lives in a context a bit smaller than light years and billions of years. Each birth is a miracle, each life is a complete journey, and for each of us, our life is a universe in itself.

In Christian terms, this is the meaning of being “made in the image of God.” I am pretty sure that doesn’t refer to God’s having dangly bits and an alimentary canal, but rather that our consciousness/souls are in a sense the same kind of thing as God Himself. We have something that inanimate matter does not have: will. We may be a small part of the physical universe and not especially relevant to its eventual fate, but we are a key part of the moral universe into which we are born.

I can’t say I have been any better or worse, and certainly not a more important part of that moral universe than the average person. Few of us are. Aside from my rather natural desire to live for a very long time, I often think that I would love to have several lifetimes to spend just learning things I disdained or ignored when I was younger.

I’d like to spend a lifetime or two doing physics. I could spend several studying history. I used to think geology was stupid, and now I could spend endless hours fascinated by how the Earth has formed and evolved. There is so much to learn, and so little time!

As I near my 60s–very close now–I look back on all the mistakes (I almost bought Apple in 1995!) and think: how might it have been different? Knowing what I know now, of course, it would be very different indeed. But that is as stupid a way to look at things as seeing ourselves as a speck of dust in the infinite universe.

We are right here. Right now. And we live our lives forward. Look back, learn, and move forward. Love those people around you.

So: happy birthday to me!

Now, on to the smiles:

My faves from the Babylon Bee:

'No One Needs An AR-15' Says Person Who's Obviously Never Seen The Cockroaches In Texas https://t.co/S2EaGjoVPO

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 22, 2023

Toxic Patriarchy: This Young Boy Discriminated Against Several Perfectly Good Barbie Dolls In Order To Play With A Train Set https://t.co/Lvhtmkcv5S pic.twitter.com/Hl7zSJkcsX

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 22, 2023

Trump Announces He Will Make Vivek Ramaswamy Head Of Tech Support In Next Administration https://t.co/xgxwZtBOPv

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 22, 2023

Experts Advise Responding To Heat Wave By Staying Indoors And Paying More Taxes To The Government https://t.co/HmbylotxOL pic.twitter.com/gIWIWWn07i

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 22, 2023

'Snow White' Producers Circumvent Actors' Strike By Casting 7 Random Hobos From San Francisco https://t.co/FpKRt6DauW pic.twitter.com/QDMmhrOD38

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 22, 2023

Mistreated, Neglected Dog Hasn't Been Played With In Over 10 Minutes https://t.co/usxahGAZHO pic.twitter.com/eEFdfVXZAt

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 21, 2023

Government Warns That With Elon Owning Twitter They Will Only Control 97% Of The Media https://t.co/N1aAd3cA0K pic.twitter.com/df1uiP4B34

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 21, 2023

Statue Of Liberty Now Holding Sign Pointing To New Jersey https://t.co/TQo2B41jbR pic.twitter.com/AxvivIC1m0

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 21, 2023

Hero: Biden Announces He Will Donate The Rest Of His Bribe Money To Charity https://t.co/mHy2wb4cEZ pic.twitter.com/x0PEYsZAdd

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 21, 2023

Progressive Parents Disappointed In How White Their Children Are https://t.co/4Lx0glVLLW pic.twitter.com/fcEzVVgyjz

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 21, 2023

Sanctuary City Bummed Now That It Has To Do The Actual 'Sanctuary' Part https://t.co/myfq61bPQZ pic.twitter.com/tQhpe1Cldq

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 21, 2023

Disney's Animatronic Biden Praised As 'Incredibly Realistic' After It Short Circuits, Has Speech Malfunction https://t.co/pmQ3cBCmxk

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 21, 2023

Being Against Crime Added To List Of Things That Are Racist https://t.co/cx3bi2TrVy pic.twitter.com/oRfRbTA3Pb

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 20, 2023

DeSantis Outlaws Man Buns https://t.co/d3ghSbhPWZ pic.twitter.com/bD5BnE1lmM

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 20, 2023

Journalists Call Amber Alerts A 'QAnon-Adjacent Conspiracy' https://t.co/YD6LIq9XwQ pic.twitter.com/VXMZSU2LAi

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 19, 2023

sniffing shock to the house dog hahah pic.twitter.com/sVw87D5TZz

— Human Fun With Animals (@FunwithanimaI) July 21, 2023

Satisfying pic.twitter.com/o8cdBWGWmt

— That's Actually Very Cool (@thatsavcool) April 14, 2023

"I'm a thug now" pic.twitter.com/5Pl40bCspg

— That's Actually Very Cool (@thatsavcool) May 6, 2023

unbelievable body art illusion ever. pic.twitter.com/EsGVp06M83

— That's Actually Very Cool (@thatsavcool) May 15, 2023

Drone show testing flight pic.twitter.com/6T1tkx2ImP

— That's Actually Very Cool (@thatsavcool) May 22, 2023

the gift that keeps on giving pic.twitter.com/uOP97rdXHM

— That's Actually Very Cool (@thatsavcool) May 26, 2023

Shooting a gun with a see-though suppressor in super slow motion pic.twitter.com/8bVjL13tgy

— That's Actually Very Cool (@thatsavcool) May 27, 2023

And finally, something I thought I would never see:

Birds and sheep dancing together pic.twitter.com/RNhWMYT416

— That's Actually Very Cool (@thatsavcool) June 2, 2023