Birthday Reflections 2026: Contemplating the Half-Century Mark

 

The Orion Nebula (from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, also my favorite Metallica song)

When I was a kid, I loved The Cosby Show. I hesitate to mention this, lest I give the criminally immoral creator of that show any attention, yet it was a huge part of my childhood. Such are the incongruities of life (but on the other hand: RIP Malcolm-Jamal Warner). I remember an episode when the main character is turning 50. His kids make an amusing presentation of “things that are older than Dad” to commemorate their father for “reaching the half-century mark.” 

A half-century!? My young mind reeled! Intellectually, of course, I knew people that old or older, but something about stating it as a “half-century” reconceptualized for me just how long that might be—if only I could conceive of an expanse of time five times longer than I had been alive at that point! What would life be like for me at that age? It was unimaginable. 

The unimaginable, dear reader, has a way of becoming reality. I reach my own half-century mark this week. That it is real makes it no easier to imagine, although now it feels unimaginably short rather than unimaginably long. 

Star Trek Reminds Us We Can Do Better: Thoughts on Star Trek's 60th Anniversary

 

My 60th anniversary popcorn bucket from AMC Theaters

The first time I realized I loved Star Trek was while watching Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, a memory I relived yesterday at my local theater for Star Trek's 60th anniversary. 

Captain Kirk and crew go back in time from the 23rd century to 1986 San Francisco to bring some whales back to the future in order to avert a cataclysm via mysterious whale-song aliens (most Star Trek fans refer to this as The One With The Whales!). When they arrive in 1986 and Starfleet-out-of-water shenanigans unfold, Kirk remembers, "they're still using money."

My ten-year-old mind reeled! They don't have money in the future? What? How could something that caused so much drama and heartache in the lives of all the adults in my life simply .... not exist?