“I’m Felix Whelan, and this is Felix at Fifty…” (theme music swells…)
In my mind, that’s what I’m hearing as I craft this flagship post for the Felix at Fifty blog. From the first spark of inspiration for this project, I have had two competing/complimentary visions of its unfolding:
On the one hand, writing this blog (I am a writer, after all) presents a golden opportunity to wax eloquent on the passions that most enrich my life – the choice to embrace a vegetarian diet, the transformative power of the Catholic Faith, my profound love for my wife, Carol Ann, and our kids, the importance of family life as an endless celebration – with insight into how those passions just might enrich your life, as well.
On the other hand, its been hard to resist envisioning all this as a reality TV show – nothing freaky like Hoarders or Bridzilla, but a show at once fun and inspiring, just the opposite of the voyeuristic pabulum bloating the cable airwaves these days. “Felix at Fifty, the TV show” would draw millions of loyal viewers with likable characters you wish you could share a beer with (or a meal, for teetotalers) in everyday life, and story-driven episodes you walk away from thinking, “I feel improved for having seen that… Can’t wait for next week!”
The blog before you is a bit of both – and, I hope, combines the best of both worlds. The posts to follow will stick religiously (pun intended, ha ha) to those topics nearest and dearest to all our hearts – food, faith, and family life (I’m assuming if these things don’t resonate with you, you’ve clicked away by now – goodbye!). I’ll explore these common passions of ours, not with dry statistics or egoistic raving (there’s way too much of that on the web already), but with character-rich stories from my personal and family life, complete with insight, compassion, plenty of good humor… and recipes! I hope you’ll reciprocate in your comments to posts on this blog, and make this a two-way street of sharing. I look forward to reading your stories!
So Why “Felix at Fifty?” What’s Up with that “at Fifty” Part?
Felix at Fifty launches on December 1st, 2012. In exactly four weeks, on December 28th, three days after Christmas, I will celebrate my 50th birthday. A little less than two months later, on Valentine’s Day, Carol Ann will follow. We will have entered into a new decade of life together.
And you’re invited!
I summed it up well when composing the “about” page for this blog, so in the spirit of parsimony I’ll just paste here what I said there (in case you’re not an avid “about” clicker – most people aren’t, you know…):
Felix at Fifty is a blog about food, faith, family and finding fulfillment at (and after) fifty. It’s about discovering that, despite past wrong turns and missed opportunities, the road ahead looks amazing… It’s about waking at the milestone of your fiftieth birthday to find that somehow, in spite of it all, you’ve managed to build an awesome family, you’re surrounded by people you love, you’re grounded in devout Faith, and feel alive with passions that inspire you. It’s about gratitude for a very good life. It’s about accepting the wisdom and authority of your years. It’s about counting blessings in the present while relishing, and working hard to fulfill, the bright promise of the next fifty years…
So let’s do that. Together. In these pages. If we make it to TV someday, mores’ the better!
A Sneak Preview of What’s to Come
Here’s a few sample headlines from likely near-future posts:
- Vegetarian and Catholic? What’s Up with That? (a vegetarian apologetic that makes no reference to P.E.T.A. – seriously!)
- My Catholic Conversion and Reversion Stories (proof that you can go home again… and again…)
- Kids and Conscience – Helping Kids Find Their Inner Barometer of Right and Wrong (that sort of explains itself…)
- The One Counter-intuitive, Yet Indispensable, Secret to a Happy Life (it’s not what you think, thus the phrase “counter-intuitive” …)
- A Whelan Family Christmas (don’t miss this very special episode…)
- Movies Worth 90 Minutes of Your Life (films so good that watching them is an investment, rather than a waste, of your precious time! Not always 100% kid friendly, but don’t worry, we’ll warn you…)
- Delicious Recipes! (proving that vegetarian meals go w-a-y beyond salad!)
Carol Ann is a world class cook, who even had her own locally-famous restaurant for a while. You will NOT want to miss her recipes, even if you’re an unrepentant carnivore! It’s not about ingredients. It’s about flavor!
One cool note concerning the recipes on this blog. I recently installed an awesome WordPress plugin called “Kitchenbug” (an unfortunate title I had nothing to do with… sigh…) that allows you to access a complete nutritional analysis of every recipe, to get detailed info on individual ingredients, to convert US to metric measurements (and back again), and to automatically reproportion each recipe to suit the number of people you will be serving. Wow! Look forward to that!
And Now a Word from Our Sponsors…
Another similarity between the Felix at Fifty blog and a TV show is that this blog has commercial sponsors – just like all websites everywhere! The difference is that I won’t try to hide that commercial dimension from you, and I won’t try to trick you into clicking links to places you don’t want to visit in hopes you’ll be dumb enough to spend money while you’re there… Tons of websites use that strategy, and I just don’t get it. It’s an insult to your intelligence, and I promise never to go there!
That said, your commercial patronage of my sponsors matters. It helps keep this blog on the air by defraying the cost of computer things like web hosting, bandwidth, etc. – and if Felix at Fifty gets big enough someday, things like food and shelter for the Whelan family, as well!
So I feel no compunction in openly requesting your favor when it comes to on-line shopping you’d be doing anyway. Please think of me and this website, and always start here. Click through my banners/links, and I will be rewarded with a small commission on your purchase. Your price at the retailer’s website is not effected in any way – except maybe for the better, as I will make every effort to keep my banners updated to offer the best specials, discounts and on-line coupon codes you might never know about, landing directly on the store sight.
I have been meticulous about partnering only with high quality, reliable, family friendly (and often family owned) on-line retailers you either already know and trust, or excellent companies you owe it to yourself to discover. Click the link in the gray menu bar under the main header on any page of this website to view a complete list of Felix at Fifty sponsors. Please bookmark that page and start every on-line shopping trip there! ‘Nuff said – Thank you!
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