Blogging Ideas

Why do we celebrate birthdays? What is it that we are proud of? Is it because against all the odds we managed to survive another year? Are we taking notes of our progress, our victories and triumphs? Is that symbolizes a new hope for us to live for another year?

None of the above, it would seem.

If it is the past year that we are commemorating, would we still drink to it if we were to receive some bad news about our health and imminent demise? Not likely. But why? What is the relevance of information about the future (our own upcoming death) when one is celebrating the past? We cannot change the past. Never a future event can vitiate the fact that we have made it through another 12 months of struggle. Then why not celebrate this fact?

Because what we focus on is not the past. It is about our future, not about the past. We are celebrating having arrived so far because such successful resilience allows us to continue forward. We’re proud of our potentials to further enjoy the gifts of life. Birthdays are constructions of unrestrained, blind faith in our own suspended mortality.

But, if this were true, surely we have less and less to celebrate as we grow older. What reason do octogenarians have to drink to another year if that gift is not easily guaranteed? Life offers diminishing returns: the longer you are invested, the less likely you are to reap the dividenda of survival, life insurance for example. Indeed, based on actuary tables, it becomes increasingly less rational to celebrate one’s future the older one gets.

Hence, we are driven into the conclusion that birthdays are about self-delusionally defying death. Preserving the illusion of immortality are what birthdays mean. Birthdays are forms of acting out our creative thinking. By celebrating that we exist, we give ourselves protective charms against the nonsense and whimsical nature of a cold, impersonal, and often hostile universe.

And it works most of the time. Have a no prescription – Happy birthday!

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