Birthdays are an opportunity to celebrate our individual humanity.
Birthdays are also a chance to celebrate the individual humanness of others we care about.
Birthdays give us an annual moment to look deeply into the heart of someone and say how we feel about that person.
Birthdays summon our deepest wellsprings of camaraderie and enable us to bond with another person in a very personal, direct manner.
Birthdays are joyous occasions that trigger memories of belonging, that enable us to draw upon our collective past in a celebratory manner.
I am grateful for the very concept of birthdays for they provide me with an avenue to reach out and strengthen the bond I have with men and women from many walks of life – life-long friends, people I knew in school, work associates, clients, mentors, even my own students in some cases. These occasions forge a bond that grows stronger with each passing year.
Today happens to be my birthday.
Many, many people reached out to me today – far more than at any time in the past. Many of the greeters were from social media, the majority of whom I have never met nor spoken to. That’s the nature of social media. I welcome their well-wishes, one and all.
But others, long-time connections, also reached out via cards, text messages, phone calls, emails, and yes, Facebook and Facebook Messenger. Great men like NM, JB, HN, MN, DS, another DS, RM, BF, WS, GB, JC, MB, DI, CM, JC, and BC. Wonderful women like SA, MM, AZ, SB, MJS, MN, AN, NN, LH, MA, MM, JS, another JS, CC, SD, CM, LR, SD, MF, RS, BZ, DH, RE, AJ, KM, DQ, LT, CN, PQ, EP, KM (AKA CS), and many others.
Not everyone of my friends (including some of my very closest friends) acknowledged my birthday. That’s not an issue at all. I recognize they show their humanity and share their gifts in other ways; birthdays simply are not on their radar.
But they are on mine. I do not, as a rule, broadcast my birthday to others (in spite of what this column may suggest) but neither do I shy away from my birthday. I love celebrating my life, and I love celebrating the life of others. And I have found that in acknowledging I am a year older, I find myself humbled at the gift of life, but also galvanized to take things up a notch and live my best life.
Birthdays are profoundly important.
