Happy 60th Birthday, Neil Peart!
Neil Peart turns 60 today, September 12, 2012. I'm sure you'll agree that he's not the same spring chicken he used to be. Talk about a transformation!
Anyway, here's something Neil wrote about the passage of time in his January, 2012, blog post, "At the Gate of the Year."
I have never liked the cliches about time racing by, because I think you simply have to keep up with that pace--live your life at exactly the speed of time. Anyone asking "Where did the time go?" obviously wasn�t paying attention! Each day, week, month or year is a vessel of fixed capacity, to be filled with memorable incidents and stories. Every day can be observed in a way that is worth sharing--a motorcycle tour in South America or a trip to the grocery store and a pleasant few words with the baggers.
Responding to a letter from a friend who claimed to have nothing to tell, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Just tell me about the events passing daily under your eyes." Properly experienced and expressed, every life is of interest to another.
Now, at the pivot of another year (my sixtieth, I am proud to crow--how foolish to regret the passing years, if you consider the alternative), I am drawn to a kind of "reckoning," a time to pause and reflect. The title phrase has long resonated for me that way: "the gate of the year."
Hope you have a nice birthday, Neil. Thanks for all the years of inspiration behind the drums -- and also behind the typewriter/computer/notebook.
Endlessly rocking