Why do we observe celebrating our birthdays? What is it that we are proud of? Is it because against all the odds we managed to survive another year? Are we marking the progress we have made, our victories and triumphs? Is it a sign of expression of a new hope for us to live for another year?
It would seem none of the above-mentioned reasons.
If we are remembering the past year, would we still drink to it if we know we are going to die soon? Not likely. But why? How is the future relevant (our own eventful death) when one is celebrating the past? We cannot change the past. Never a future event can corrupt the fact that we got it through another 12 months of struggle. Then why not celebrate this fact?
Because it is not the past that is foremost on our minds. It is about our future, not of the past. We are observing 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 constructions of exuberant, blind faith in our own suspended mortality.
But if these all are true, definitely we have less and less to celebrate as we grow older. What are the reasons do septuagenarians have to drink to one more 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 thinking 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 that we exist, we bestow on ourselves protective charms against the meaninglessness and whimsical nature of a cruel, impersonal, and often hostile universe.
And it works more often than not. Have a no prescription - Happy birthday!
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