Today, my "little brother" is sixty years old.  It's hard to believe, really, as it was for me when I passed that milestone a couple of years ago.  Like most baby boomers, we once only dreamed about turning sixty; we never imagined we would ever actually experience it.
     As I contemplate aging and the flow of existence today, I think of many things.  One that comes to me repeatedly is the fact of the connectivities which we experience, the many communal links we establish with each other and our fellow human beings.  Whether we believe the world is open or closed, whether we believe the universe is accidental or created, and whether we believe that God is there or not, when we finally reach our earthly end, it is these connectivities that will be ultimately all we have.  And in the hourglass of resurrection, eternity, and God, it is these connectivities that, given their source, ultimately affirm purpose and point in our existence:  the permanence, as the psalmist said, "of the work of our hands" (Psalm 90).
     Happy birthday, brother!