Seeing as I’ve got 4 months before I need to do any international travel, and 10 months before my passport expires, it’s time to get it renewed. Whether I’m well-organized or just consistent in my laziness, when I got a new passport picture taken and received 2 copies, the extra copy went into my desk drawer right on top of my two previous passport pictures. Ten years ago I presented the first two for comparison. Today I add the third. When presented together they comprise a triptych of an aging man.

In the left-most photo I’m probably 26. I have hair (which is thinning on top, but you can’t see that!), no beard, and still a baby face. I’m still a year away from having children and looking like what a friend once described as an East German android.

The center photo has me at age 36. The hair is gone, the goatee (technically a Van Dyke, but who’s counting?) in place, casually dressed with what is undoubtedly a Cubs t-shirt under my jacket.

The right-hand side is me yesterday, age 46. I can see the age starting to set in. Head still shaved, beard full and a lot greyer, back to a polo shirt. I have a pic somewhere on my phone from a few years ago where I was messing around with one of those artificial aging apps. I’m now inclined to think it was fairly accurate, because I can see myself getting there. Also, I resemble my dad more than I often think I do.

Who knows what the next decade will bring?