A brief reflection on turning 50

This past Wednesday (January 23), I celebrated a major milestone birthday ... my 50th (that's right, the half-century mark ... the big 5-0!).

Usually, I would celebrate my birthday in a low-key manner. A nice dinner at my sister and brother-in-law's home with about 10 of my closest relatives, which is fine with me. For my 50th, my sister Nancy decided to ratchet it up a little and on the Saturday before, held a party with about 25 of my closest friends and relatives (there were great hors-doeuvres -- including hot brisket sandwiches -- a mini self service candy store in their dining room and of course, a delicious chocolate and vanilla cake). It was a great little get together and I didn't get home until 1 a.m. On the exact day of my birthday, four of my friends took me out to dinner at a downtown Montreal resto-pub that I started to frequent called Nyk's. We had a good time and a lot of laughs (and weren't hampered by the crappy attitude of the waiter, who wasn't thrilled at the the fact that my friend Paul brought along a birthday cake from an outside  bakery, and wanted to charge us $2 a slice if we wan't to serve the cake there ... all Paul asked for was four plates! Next time, we go to Baton Rouge). And the more than 250 birthday greetings I got on Facebook was certainly quite a boost.

Overall, it was a really terrific way to celebrate my half-century mark; it wasn't a loud blow-out, nor very under the radar low-key; it was just perfect!

I like to reflect a lot, and this week was no exception. Because I like history, I took a historical perspective on the week when I was born (January 23, 1963) to see how the world was like back on that cold January morning (it was a frigid 5 degrees Fahrenheit that day in Montreal). John F. Kennedy was still the president, John Diefenbaker was still the prime minister of Canada and Jean Drapeau was firmly ensconced in the mayor's chair at Montreal city hall. People were lining up outside movie theatres to see Peter O' Toole in David Lean's epic historical biopic "Lawrence of Arabia" (which is one of my favorite flicks); the #1 show on TV was "The Beverly Hillbillies" in its debut season (and Jethro's harebrained schemes always made me laugh, especially his Double-Knot spy phase); the #1 song on the Billboard charts that week was "Go Away, Little Girl" by Steve Lawrence (in which a cover version was done by Donny Osmond about a decade later); and in the bookstores, the title that was flying off the shelves was Rachel Carson's ahead-of-her-time look at the environment and how it was being ruined by pesticides called "Silent Spring". Indeed, it was an interesting time to be born.

Reflecting over the past 50 years, I realized there have been its share of good times, bad times, good choices, bad choices. Although I may not be a millionaire swimming in a pool of money, what I have experienced so far, and the people I have encountered and befriended have made me quite rich.

Let's see ... I appeared as a contestant on "Reach for the Top" and "Jeopardy!" ... I have met my share of interesting people throughout my personal and professional adventures (Terry Fox, Milton Berle, George Burns, Ed McMahon, the Governor General of Canada circa 1980, Joan Rivers, Drew Carey, Alex Trebek, the Smothers Brothers, the rock group Chicago, John Cleese -- who called me "Steve" --, Terry Jones, Jerry Stiller, Lewis Black, the list just goes on); I've had the good fortune to get involved in some great community and charitable organizations (which I am still involved with today) such as B'nai Brith Youth Organization, Dreams Take Flight and Generations Foundation; worked at some interesting jobs (such as researcher for Just For Laughs' museum and a newspaper copy editor/columnist); I've had my own weekly radio segment called "Book Banter" that ran for 19 years on CJAD; I've written a book that was a local bestseller and have churned out thousands of newspaper columns for several Montreal-based weekly papers, which has taken me to festivals, sporting events, fundraisers and plenty of shows (which I still do to this day, and still enjoy it since I produced my first piece of newspaper copy 32 years ago).

And like I've said before, the list just goes on.

I would like to conclude by saying that just because I just turned 50, it does not mean "over the hill" and ready to tread upon the path towards the old folks' home. I refuse to do that! I plan to spend the next half century continuing to do what I enjoy doing, explore some new things (I just got an iPad for a birthday gift and marvelling at what it can offer after so much navigating, and I'm beginning to savour the joy of a morning cup of coffee -- weekends only -- with another birthday gift, a brand new Keurig system), meet more new interesting people, travel a little bit more (next destination: BBYO International Convention in Washington, DC next month), churn out more written stuff and above all, appreciate more what I have now, look forward to see what the future will bring, and cherish the people  in my life (family, friends and professional acquaintances) who make me feel good and feel special, and in turn make them feel appreciative for the unique kind of people they are, and feel very fortunate that we're part of each other's lives. I couldn't ask for anything more.

The way I see it, I don't see myself as "olden", but more like "golden". Not a bad way to commemorate   50 years of one's life.