As you get older, birthdays seem to matter less. In fact, their significance seems to fall off at a roughly logarithmic rate. I think it makes sense to celebrate binary birthdays for each year that is a power of two: years 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and (if you are very lucky) 128. That feels about right. And then we could quote our age as 0 byears (1+ years), 1 byear (2+ years), 2 byears (4+ years), 3 byears (8+ years), 4 byears (16+ years), 5 byears (32+ years), or 6 byears (64+ years), and celebrate those binary birthdays or "binaversaries."

It makes life seem a little more orderly somehow. We are children through age 3 byears, generally settle down during our fourth byear, work to retirement in our fifth byear, then often die at the age of 6 byears. If we're not so lucky, we have a few byears less, but somehow the variation seems less drastic.

I'm happy to have lived 4 full and joyful byears, and so far byear 5 is pretty nifty too.