My buddy, Sam, turned fifty years old today. He is an absolute miracle, not because of overcoming any handicap, illness, or problems at birth, but because we are all miracles.

Sam defeated the odds. The odds of being born are about one in 400 trillion. The odds of making it through each day seem pretty astronomical to me. Getting out of bed can seem like an insurmountable task at times, but not only do we survive that, we thrive in spite of it and all of its difficulties.

Sam has avoided a lotta mules that could have kicked him, a lot of buses that could have plowed him, and a lot of dogs that could have eaten him. There are sharks that bite, bullets that pierce, diseases that spread, corners that cut, and ladders that slip. We are faced we so many ways to die every day, yet Sam has managed to avoid them every day for fifty years.

Sam is batting a thousand when it comes to surviving each day. That’s a pretty good score. As a matter of fact, I would venture to put Sam on a Ninja- level when it comes to survival. He has never lost. Can you imagine playing  Pitfall, Rygar, QBert, Pac-Man, or RushnAttack on the same life for 18,250 days, all day, every day? It’s pretty impressive.

We all should be impressed with our streak of making it through back-to-back days without dying. We should celebrate more often. Hell, we should celebrate every day. Every day that is not our death day should be celebrated like it’s our birthday. Of all the situations that I swore I would never get out of, all the predicaments I was sure to never see the last of, and all of the days that I swore I would never make it to the end of, here I am. Here I am with you, a group of survivors who should be celebrating overcoming the odds every day, yet I spend a great deal of my time inventing different ways of dying due to stress and anxiety.

A wise man once told me, “Don’t let a bad day convince you that you have a bad life, and if you think you are having a bad day now, try missing one of them.”

Keep it between the lines and try to celebrate the fact that you made it this far….

…you badass little ninja, you.

Happy Birthday Sammy! And happy birthday to everyone else who has ever been born and is still here to celebrate. Let’s keep that streak alive.

Peace, Love and all things Beef related,

Beefcake