Transthought

Birthday Celebrations

Henry Thoreau did not write much about birthdays, even his own. One year he mentioned comings and goings on the 12th of July, his birthday, but no mention at all of the day's significance. Birthdays abound in my family in August. And we celebrate them all. I recall my father whose birthday was in August remarking that there are no holidays in August, so it was good to have a birthday to give the month some reason to celebrate something.

Celebrations are interesting, and different families, different institutions, different people, celebrate in different ways. I personally do not like the way athletes celebrate their achievements by pointing to the skies, or bumping chests, or slapping one another. I do not like it when stores celebrate holidays by having sales. I am not crazy about the way Christmas dominates the world for more than a month; in fact, I saw Christmas items on sale in a store just the other day! What do sales have to do with Washington's birthday?

I am not, however, a prude or a Puritan. I like a good time like everyone else, but I like it my own way. I do not like to have to celebrate out of obligaton, but out of spontaneous joy. I do not like forced parties, retirements, promotions, and the like. Nor do I like seeing bumper stickers praising a child for being on the honor roll. I prefer to celebrate in private with my intimates, and not be involved in group experiences. It is easy to find oneself acting silly at a celebration, saying things one wouldn't in a more rational moment say. I prefer the prepared speech to those off-the-cuff remarks one makes because asked to on the spur of the moment.

We have a son, a daughter-in-law (plus an ex-daughter-in-law), a brother, two grandchildren, a wedding anniversary, and, it used to be a father, all coming up in August for some kind of recognition. Is longetivity itself something to be celebrated? I suppose so, but how? Every family has its own traditions on how to deal with all this, and every time there is a marriage, or a birth, or a graduation, or something else, the issue arises: what to do? It is not how much to spend or where to go, but whether the celebration is worthy of what kind of observation. That is not always an easy decision, nor even is it easy to determine who makes the decision.

So celebrate your life however you will and must. Celebrate the life of those around you, and make life itself the winner!

Wayne's words for August 7, 2006

posted by Wayne Olson @ 12:16 PM