I just found out that May 18th
was Hunter Woolsman’s birthday. He turned 18 on the 18th. When I
asked him about why he did not say anything, he told me that he didn’t want
people making a fuss. Plus, he and his dad always had special birthday rituals
going back as far as he could remember. Not strange “let’s sacrifice a goat to
Baal” rituals but little things like his dad would always make him blueberry
pancakes for breakfast. Hunter got to choose which restaurant they went to that
evening. Most of the time, he let him take the day off school. His dad did
things to make that day special…
But
I am reminded of the Seinfeld episode
when they talked about birthdays. “It’s a bad day. You’ve got all these people
in your house. You’re looking around. You’re thinking, ‘These are my friends?’”
Truth be told, I have never really felt comfortable about my birthday either.
I always wanted the day to be special
but I didn’t like the idea of people making a fuss over me. I mean my idea of a
perfect birthday is a nice but not out of the normal breakfast, not having to
do any of my daily chores, and a good dinner, finished off with a romp through
the garden of earthly delights… if you know what I am saying. But that was back
when I was married… Man. That seems like a lifetime ago.
But often times, a party is not so
much for you as it is for the people around you. People love a good party and
we missed an opportunity to celebrate a pretty big milestone… especially if you
consider that we all might not live to celebrate our own next birthday.
So I think we need to really go all
out for people’s birthdays. Not just for them but for everyone. We have a fully
functioning bakery with all sorts of decorations for a professional icing. We
have everything for great birthday parties. We need to implement that. I need
to assign someone to be the official “party planner.”
I know it is a dumb idea but if we are
all distracted by paper hats and noise makers and cake (if only for an hour or
two) is that a bad thing?
