The Meaning of 39

There are some birthdays that feel significant. Sweet sixteen comes to mind, though I certainly didn't throw a big party. You get to vote and potentially get drafted when you are 18 and not much else. At the age of 25, I've been told your car insurance would go down, but not when you are me. Twitter tells me that I should have some things accomplished by 30 or 35. And next year is the big 4-0 which probably means a mid-life crisis is right around the corner. But in the grand economy of social status and thought, turning 39 is pretty insignificant.

Which means, that I will spend a decent amount of time today trying to find "significance in the insignificant" - which would also have been the name of my emo cover band. So, as the well wishes and coupons from every company that has my email begin to flood in, here are some significant 39 related things.

It turns out that '39 is the title of a Queen song that I had never heard before. It was the B-side to "You're my Best Friend" and released in 1975. It is oddly haunting and has something to do with a ship and it's crew.

It is one of the few songs that Brian May sang for the band. According to Wikipedia "The song tells the tale of a group of space explorers who embark on what is, from their perspective, a year-long voyage. Upon their return, however, they realize that a hundred years have passed, because of the time dilation effect in Einstein's special theory of relativity, and the loved ones they left behind are now all dead or aged." 

Well that is a big unexpected and I'm not sure what it means for my birthday. But there is a real impulse to get a ship tattoo encircled by the lyrics: 

And the night followed day
And the story tellers say
That the score brave souls inside
For many a lonely day sailed across the milky seas
Ne'er looked back, never feared, never cried

39 is also the country code for Italy. So that's nice to know, if I ever need it. 

Last summer, Nelson Cruz became just the third player 39 years old to hit at least 39 home runs. Fingers crossed he breaks 40 next year. 

There is an independent film called The 39th, that looks at a certain political campaign in Illinois. According to the website;

"The 39th is the story of how campaigns are won and lost in Illinois today — the strategists, the people, the tactics — and what happens when a community comes together to take back local politics."

I have not watched it.

Jimmy Carter was the 39th President of the United States and coincidentally in office when I was born. I knew he was a farmer and former Governor of Georgia. I did not know that he graduated from the Naval Academy and worked on submarines, including in the nuclear submarine program. He only resigned his commission when the need to take over his family farm arose. I wonder how history would be different if he stayed in the Navy? 

The 39th parallel runs just south of Kansas City and Topeka. Kansas City is where my mom was morn and Topeka is a city in Kansas. 

On a bit of a morbid note some notable celebrities passed away in their 39th year. This fact is probably the only time you can have a list of people that includes Martin Luther King Jr., Anna Nicole Smith, Stonewall Jackson, Wild Bill Hickok, Amelia Earhart, Malcolm X and Dylan Thomas. 

Dylan Thomas wrote one of my favorite poems. It feels fitting to end on a vocal recording of it.