50th birthday yesterday

It is quite a summer, filled with landmarks. First footsteps on the Asian continent (one more to go! Australia!), funding of my next big NSF grant, trip to London and Paris, and not least, my 50th birthday. It was a low key day for the most part. Ann alerted the staff who alerted my lab about the occasion. A cold stone creamery ice cream cake, helium balloon and slight indulgence gift certificate arrived to the embarrassing sounds of 'Happy Birthday' echoing down the Life Sciences Building halls. They are a fantastic bunch, these students of mine. Then Ann cooked a wonderful steak dinner with lots of fresh garden ingredients in the salad. The mint juleps weren't bad either!

I wish I had some great words of wisdom from the lofty peak of half a century, but all I can offer is small ones. The first third of my life :-) has been a great joy thanks mostly to you who are reading this blog. And while my (close) vision deteriorates with age, I see much more clearly now than at 40, or 30, what is important in life. And I hope that process of gaining clarity of purpose continues on into 60, 70, and 80, continuing to guide my actions. It is an inconvenient truth that we humans have no choice but to learn to live sustainably on this planet. So I hope to use what minimal talents I have in teaching and research to communicate more effectively what steps need to be taken to make this transition to sustainability more pleasant than painful, more joyful than sorrowful, and to convince people that this all needs to be done with greater appreciation and respect for our fellow planetary travelers; the wonderful animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms of the world. That seems like a modest enough goal for the next century, eh?

Thursday - to Europe!