Birthdays

I don't particularly like birthdays; ever since about the 8th grade they've always seemed artificial to me (caveat: I loved getting presents). Yeah, I was born on that day, but so what? It was random. Better to celebrate something that has meaning to me in the present. Note: This means that yes, birthdays can be meaningful and fun and all that jazz. It just feels that for lots of people (including my family), birthday celebrations are done because we've always done them and everyone else does them, not because they have intrinsic value on their own. I mean, it's not like the need to celebrate making it one more year on earth is as pressing as it used to be...on the other hand, it's not fully gone, either. Hm.

Incidentally, I tend to feel a similar way about all tradition: most of it happens because the previous generation did it, and they teach us to do it.

Frack that. That's rarely a good reason to do anything. With lots of things, if you look closer, you find the real reason, which is usually something like "we fish here because the fish have always been here." It's sometimes coated with the authority and status of the local elders (be they clan elders or your parents...it's a metaphor that carries), but it's rarely done wholly without an understanding of the underlying benefits and consequences.

A friend of mine used to leave the morning of his birthday and get back some time after sunset. No one saw him the entire day, and he usually spent it thinking. I think he started this practice in his early teens, and I think he eventually gave it up. I think it's a relatively good idea, to set aside a day to be alone and take stock of where you're at. The downside is that it can be difficult to force yourself to do that...and that your family and friends tend to get annoyed when you disrupt tradition. However, I give him credit for one thing: he managed to reclaim the day for himself, instead of letting other people dictate how it was supposed to go.