That was Happy Birthday! in finnish in case you didn't know it. We (all the family, four sons) feel ourselves very thankful for what you have been doing these last decades. I came to know your linguistical thinking in sixties (a part of me is classical scholar) and political thinking much later. One feature strikes me in your thinking time and again. You don't take on your shoulders too many, too complicated nor too heavy theoretical structures. You have succeeded to show that some of the most important principles are amazingly simple. (I know what I am talking about because I am translating with my wife Guattari's Chaosmose in finnish) One more thing that I can say as father: Not only is it a miracle how kids learn to use the language at a very early age, but the miracle is repeated at teenage by the quick and natural acquisition of critical thinking, especially if they live in an environment which favors it. And in this last thing you have been a good guide. One final comment about language and old age, I don't mean you, you are still young, but my mother who passed away at the age of almost 102 years. All her life she read books and when she lost her sight, she kept on listening taped books and we also read her a lot. I am convinced that her constant being "in" the language contributed to her clear thinking and good memory - she could tell thing about the finnish civil war in 1918! She died "communist" (which had a very special meaning in her case).
We wish you lots of active years!
Heikki, Mariaana, Harri, Bruno, Zachris and Albert