Reasons for Celebrating Birthdays

Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago at 5:37 am. 0 comments

Why do we celebrate birthdays? What is it that we are proud of? Is it for we survive another year of hardships and odds? Are we tinkering about our progress we have gone through, our victories and triumphs? Is it a sign of expression of a new hope sprung eternal to live 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 have some bad news about our health? Not likely. But why? What is the relevance of information about the future (our own upcoming death) when it is the past that we are celebrating? The past is immutable. No future event can corrupt the fact that we got it through for another year. Then why not celebrate this fact?

Because what we think is not the past. It is about our future, not of the past. We are celebrating having gone so far because such outlook in life allows us to continue forward. We proclaim our potential to further enjoy the gifts of life. Birthdays are expressions 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. So, based on actuarial science, it becomes increasingly less rational to celeberate as we grow older.

Thus, we are driven into the conclusion self-delusionally defying death are what birthday meant. Preserving the illusion of immortality are what birthdays mean. Birthdays are forms of acting out our imaginative thinking. By celebrating our existence, we give ourselves protective charms against the nonsense and whimsical nature of a cold, impersonal, and and most often a universe bombarded with hostility.

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

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