Birthdays

Yesterday, my fellow employees gathered around a couple of tables filled with cakes, pies and fruit and sang "Happy Birthday" to several colleagues who happened to share November birthdays. They blew out the candles together and the feasting began. Then, we went back to work. We do this every month.

How many million times a day does this ritual play out in homes and offices around the country--or the world? Celebrating birthdays is everywhere--or at least it's all over the U.S., where I live.

Also at work this week, we celebrated a birth, when an employee delivered her first child on 11/11/11--at just a few minutes before 11:11! Two photos of the beautiful boy circulated through our emailboxes.

Today is the birthday of Gordon Lightfoot, one of my favorite singer/songwriter/musicians. I spent an evening with him last week. Here's a case of celebrating the achievement of years. The man is still with us at 73, and although he doesn't sound the same, he is our treasured artist and we celebrate him every time "If You Could Read My Mind" comes on the iPod. There wasn't an empty seat at his concert last week.

The Beatles sang "You say it's your birthday..." on the White Album, and that song gets played a lot, although it is not as ubiquitous as the aforementioned little tune. There are lots of other birthday songs out there.

My wife, stepmom and older son all have birthdays in the next few weeks. That makes the Thanksgiving time especially meaningful. Also, a friend and former boss's birthday is November 27. Jeffrey Thomas, born just 10 days after Gordon Lightfoot in 1938, passed away at only 68. I used to call him on his birthday every year. I miss that--and him.

My most important birthday, I think, so far, was my 50th. That's when I began to take music seriously and got my first bass. I'm hoping -- even planning -- to have many many more.

Obama Turns 50

Yesterday, President Obama celebrated his 50th birthday. While that's certainly a milestone, one can reasonably wonder what that means to someone who has achieved what he has. He's the president of the United States! The question "what do you want to be when you grow up" has been answered for him.

I believe that for most of us, however, turning 50 is a bittersweet milestone. It's an accomplishment to survive half a century, to be sure, but for me, it was also a time to realize that if there were things I wanted to do, I'd better get started NOW. So I did. I took up the bass guitar, which led to the upright bass, and now I've got lots of music to enjoy--just what I wanted at 14 and tried to do at 18. Yeah, it took me a while.

Right now our leader is very focused on doing his job and getting re-elected. At the end of his second term he'll be a mere 55, and if a Republican manages to unseat him next year, he'll be a 51-year-old guy with an amazing resume and a range of options. He could do the "retire to the ranch" thing that his predecessor has done--put out a book, cut brush, go speak occasionally for big bucks. Or, he could take the Bill Clinton model and go out and get involved. Or, like Jimmy Carter, work for peace and help people around the world for decades after his relatively brief government service.

It will be interesting to see how Obama handles a midlife crisis. He may be having one right now, for all we know. He's "cool" so he'd never let on. Much has been made of his hair turning gray in office, but I think it's not even the stress (president of the U.S. - yeah!) but the fact that it's typical to start graying at this age and also that there may have been just a touch of Grecian Formula on the campaign trail--although it seems like it wouldn't have hurt him then to show a little gray. We'll probably never know (and it really doesn't matter).

Happy Birthday, Mr. President, and good luck with the next five years -- and whatever comes after.