"Caros audiophiles, I have this last week been celebrating my 50th birthday. Actually I am still buzzing inside. Several days of dinner parties and champagne, pub lunches and theatre with friends, and a big family dinner, people arriving from Portugal and Belgium as well as England. For a few days I became the centre of attention, and felt privileged, appreciated and loved.
Of course, everybody who has reached this 'etapa' (hopefully not my 'meta') knows that 50 is really the new 30. We do not feel middle aged. Anyway, it seems a significant point in life to reflect on past achievements, and regrets, and to think of fresh hopes and to set new ambitions.
I am currently creating a list of "50 Things To Do @ 50": some are very personal goals, others are fun new challenges like skydiving and scuba diving and running a half marathon, some are philanthropic such as volunteering work for a social needs or environmental charities, others are learning new skills such as playing the piano and dancing the tango and magic tricks and creative mosaic, and writing a book or a film screenplay, and some others are travel destinations like Iceland Antarctica and Aurora Borealis.
Some friends have suggested that I compile a list of my 50 Favourite Films (and then watch them all again)...well, this could be an interesting topic of discussion at dinner parties.
I have an idea also to compile my 50 Favourite Songs, and then send them to all my friends as a CD gift. This is proving to be a problem: how can I choose just 50? Every day/week, depending on my mood, I can choose almost a completely different list, from pop/rock/jazz/folk/blues/classical/opera genres!
But gradually I am realising that there are some songs or pieces of music that, whatever my mood, are essential to my well-being or which mean something to my psyche or my musical development through the years.
Some of these I have already posted to this blog during the past 18 months. I am sure I will post some others in the future.The song I present today has to be in my top 50, because it carries a sentiment in the words that always resonates with me. If I have a passion in life, then probably it is music:
Music was my first love and it will be my last,
music of the future, and music of the past.
To live without my music would be impossible to do,
because in this world of troubles
my music pulls me through.
A proxima.
PO
