🎂 🎂 🎂 Here we are: the big 5-oh. I asked ChatGPT to create a light but heartfelt post for me, but all I got out of that exercise was generic and saccharine outputs about how “50 is the new 30” (news to me), and how I’m looking forward to new adventures… blah blah blah. Plus, way too many birthday cake emojis.

Despite the milestone, it’s true that I’m feeling upbeat. I’m grateful for my beautiful family and life’s blessings. But the general tone of the ChatGPT responses - shockingly - reeked of AI. So I’m going to have to do this the hard way: write this post myself without the help of an AI assistant. Like an animal.

Let’s start with some perspective. Here’s some fun and interesting things that happened by the close of 1974:

  • Nixon resigned as US president.

  • Rubik’s Cube was invented.

  • The S&P 500 closed at 68.56.

  • The Dow closed at 616.24.

  • I was born.

There’s a funny line in “A Christmas Story” where Ralphie describes the feeling of time running out as “the Christmas noose beginning to tighten”. Turning 50 is kind of like that. My “time-left-to-do-stuff" noose is beginning to tighten. Wait, that sounded darker than I intended. What I’m trying to say is that it’s a weird feeling knowing that I’m now older than my father was when I, as a kid, first realized he was OLD.

This being the age of electronic communication, I had a whole conversation with my extended family - over text - about how 50 is middle age (again, news to me). This is ridiculous given that the average lifespan in the US is around 80. The actuaries would say I’m well past middle-age. But I think the sentiment with my family was more complex than merely taking my expected lifespan and dividing it by two. Most of us, regardless of what the calendar says, feel like we’re perpetually in middle age. We’re constantly “adulting”: managing family, job, our homes, hobbies, our health, and unexpected life events.

Some of these unexpected life events can permanently change your perspective on your life. My wife’s cancer journey really drove that point home for me: Life is short. Yeah, no kidding. My advice: don’t just sit on your ass too long. Thing’s aren’t as good or as bad as you think.

Bill Burr said it best: “You’re gonna be fine. And even if you’re not, isn’t it better to exist thinking it’s going to be fine until it’s not? And then, you can handle it then. There’s no sense in ruining right now.”

Indeed. Enjoy right now. So, here’s to the next actuarially-adjusted 50 years.

Cheers and salud.