Birthday time and a half

Except maybe for the half-time show or a half-price sale, on the whole, most folks don’t think much of “half.”

A “half-truth” is still deemed a lie, a ridiculous idea is “half-baked” and a truly idiotic unproductive result is dismissed as “half-donkeyed” (you know what I really mean.) Nobody buys a half-gallon of gas nor do we accept a half-hearted effort. You haven’t reached your destination if you’re only half-way there, and, while half a loaf may be better than none, it’s still only half as good as a whole one.

A half-moon hardly brightens the sky, nor does a half-nelson or a half-hour session assure therapeutic success. The diminutive are but a “half-pint,” weak coffee is flavored by “half and half,” flags steeped in sadness are flown at half-mast and the impulsive run off half-cocked, while frequently we are entertained (or governed) by the half-witted.

Of course everyone knows what the social director told the boring nuclear physicist (“get a half-life”) just as the pessimist forever sees the glass as half-empty while even the optimist sees it as (only) half-full. Greater value is placed on the quarterback than the half-back, while a half-dollar does you no good at parking meters or vending machines. You can’t compose a symphony with just half-notes, and very few will pull from a barrel a half-sour pickle.

Indeed, “half” is so relegated to being seen in a half-light that when we’re unsure and hesitant to take an action, we say we have “half a mind to do it,” whereas when something is not terribly good, we politely say it’s not “half-bad.”

That’s why it was so odd to hear that last weekend my Cousin Victor celebrated his “half-birthday.”

Not much of a celebrant generally, Victor explained his semi-annual observance by noting that six-months to the day of his birth date he buys himself half a cake and then analyzes the preceding twenty-six weeks as well as those yet to come. He stops half-way through the year to consider what he’s done, what’s been done to him, and where he’s been and with whom and why.

His half-birthday is a chance to dialogue with himself, to meet himself half-way and see where he can improve before more time passes. If birthdays are for public celebration, then, says Victor, half-birthdays are for private evaluation. Birthdays are for others to show you a good time, half-birthdays are for you to prove to yourself that your time is not just good but meaningful.

I guess Victor’s point is that while life is an extraordinary joy and treasure and adventure, all too often we don’t know the half of it; that we could though, easily discover life’s nobility, beauty and purpose if we just gave it, and ourselves, half a chance.

© Copyright © 2011 Ron Goldman Ron Goldman is an attorney in private practice with offices in Cedarhurst and can be reached @ 1-800-846-9013