Happy Birthday...

Leonard Pitts Jr.

On Thursday, it will be 50 years since I fooled around and got myself born. It's a personal milestone that raises a critical question I've been grappling with for weeks:

Can I get a column out of this?
...
Your humble correspondent has survived no death camp. To the contrary, I've seen Niagara Falls and Hawaiian sunsets. I've been in African shanties and French restaurants. I've seen Stevie Wonder dance on a piano, heard Aaron Neville sing Amazing Grace. I've suffered loss, yes, but I've also seen birth.

It's been -- so help me, Jimmy Stewart -- a wonderful life. But there have been those hard days when faith was shaken, and I moped in the self-pitying conviction that life was a conspiracy against me. When I was a kid -- and I suppose this is true of all kids -- I always figured that one day I would Understand It All. At the end of five decades, I'm still waiting for that day.