Usually, I drink a bottle of Jameson. This year I went out with my parents, had some cocktails and got my dad drunk enough that mom had to drive and that guy can drive with one eye open and the other on his lap.
I don't like big birthday celebrations personally, but everyone is different. What do you do on the day you split your mother open?
Given that several billion-year-old particles combined to create the thing that you are, all of it arising due to some autocatalytic chemical system, as theadvancedapes has been telling us, you'd think the writers on this thread would be a little happier about the anniversary of their arrival.
I agree! Don't forget that you are a biological network of trillions of intricately designed cells that has enabled you to enjoy the universe and all of its wonder for another trip around our parent star! And don't forget that most biological systems on the planet now - and most that have ever lived - were only sustained for an infinitesimal fraction of the time that you will enjoy (and they weren't/aren't even cognizant of their own existence!). Most biological systems last for less than a year - they never get to see their first birthday. They never know that there such thing as a birthday. You will experience decades worth of birthdays and you are aware of it! It's fantastically rare and special! And you may live at the knee of a curve that will allow you to experience hundreds!
I agree, but as F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote "The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." Why that weird quote you ask? Well for me there is a duality to my life. I am the fortunate result of a billion years of physical and chemical interactions too complex to comprehend. My lineage traces all the way back to the primordial ooze and every individual on that lineage existed long enough to reproduce before being cast aside to the in-terminal void of unknowable history. The end result being me. Thats wonderful. But at some level we have to acknowledge (Or perhaps I'm on my own on this one) that sometimes life can be boring, sometimes it can drag along in mundane cycles; sometimes you have to consider the possibility that you exist merely as a delivery mechanism for your genes. That your hopes and dreams for life don't figure into any equation except your own. I'm not talking about momentary moods of despair, I'm talking about fundamental truths to your existence which are just as pertinent as the fact you are born from dying stars. "Seize the day, Carpe Diem!" people cry. Sometimes I think "Dont seize it, just leave it where it is, its fine over there"
Re quote by FSF: absolutely - and when I put the boredom, anger, or sadness in the march from ooze to human context, it's a little lighter - not much, but a little. Some of the sadness is biochemical anyway. "Dont seize it, just leave it where it is, it's fine over there"
reminds me of a quote: "I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask where they're going and hook up with 'em later." - Mitch Hedberg
Of course, you have to make your own meaning. You are a vehicle for your eternal genes. That is a fact. But you are also thinking being that can comprehend the vastness of the cosmos or the concept of time. You can love and be loved. You can share your thoughts and memories with others. You are part of a phenomenon that may have never occurred before. That is also a fact. But whether you make the most of it is a personal choice.
You mention several things which are positive (comprehension, love/loved, experiences, sharing) and that making the most of them is personal choice. I agree with you there and I certainly do make the most of the things which bring me joy (family, friends, nature etc). I recently did some personality tests (thankfully I didn't fail :) as part of a set of tests my employer supplied. The results of these things I normally place on the shelf with horoscopes but this one genuinely surprised me. Along with some other things it said my approach to concepts was 'contextual'. Maybe its the confirmation bias talking but I think the result was pretty spot on. Its all about your context, its nice to look at the brightside but you need to glance at the dark bits every now and again to keep your perspective. They both make up the whole...
WELL SAID both lil and theadvancedapes! Life -what a privilege.
I don't do much, maybe dinner. I do look forward to some sort of gift this year from my daughter who is now old enough to make a drawing or something like that. -I never realized this, but parents actually do like that stuff.
Nothing :( I am usually in a bad mood for my birthday. A party would be out of the question really and I wouldn't necessarily enjoy a surprise one if someone made the mistake of arranging it. The only way I can describe it is with a cryptic and rather poor Deadwood analogy. I'm like Al Swearengen, I like being in the background and getting involved but I have no desire and will actively sidestep any attempt to place me in the limelight. Al runs the town but he doesn't run for Mayor. If he woke up in the morning and found himself elected he would resign and get back to whoring and swindling in the shadows. That's me, a whore-mongering, cowboy swindling, election dodger that hates his birthdays. This outlook has negatively affected my life I'm sure but the more birthdays that pass, the more OK I am with the fact that I hate them. Its who I am.
Most years I throw myself a party and write a speech. The speech is often on the top ten questions people have asked me over the previous year. The yearly speech led to my blog. Another thing I often do on my birthday is start a new journal and write in it questions I have about unresolved things in my life at that moment. I try and write a question for every year of age (but that's getting harder to do). When I finish a journal, I go back to the first few pages and see if the questions have been answered. If you're 21 and need stuff like a car or a slow cooker or money, then it's good to get presents and cash, but sometimes a good present just looks like this.
http://pbfcomics.com/32/ Never noticed birthdays really. One of the few days of the year I talk to some really cool people like my godmother, an old friend or two. So there's that.
Oddly enough, I usually happen to be on holiday, even though I don't fall near traditional prime-time for those (Christmas, Easter, etc.). If I'm not, I like to spend it just with a few close friends, hanging out as usual. I never really saw the significance in a huge party or anything like that.
For the past two years to celebrate my girlfriend's birthday, we've been camping and hiking at Starved Rock State Park.
You know, I have this game I play. See, for the past three years, my family has forgotten my birthday. I don't remind them myself because I want to see if they'll remember it on their own. Usually I wait until the end of the day to tell them "Hey, forgetting something?", and then they go "oooohhh", and then they feel sad and sorry for me. Last year, I didn't even tell them until the next day. Next time, I'm going to not tell them until the end of the month. In reality, I don't like birthday celebrations, so I'm actually happy they forget.
Yup. My parents and siblings. I dislike birthdays. I don't like the cakes, the presents, the odd apparent artifical nature of it all. I guess. How I describe it doesn't accurately mirror my sentiments, but I can't find the right words, so I'll settle with artificial, which is sorta like how I feel about it. I don't really want a day where people do that kind of stuff to me. When I was a kid it was fun, because everyone around you is happy and you showered with affection and presents, but around my teen years it started feeling off, and eventually I dreaded my birthday. The sentiment is nice, I'll gladly concede that. I prefer a simple "Happy Birthday!" than all of the above, or even just treating me like you would any other day. My birthday is on September 28th. On a funny side note, as a child, I thought my birthday was on September 27th. I'm not sure how I came to believe that. Perhaps it sounded more euphonic as you have the "s" sound on September and 7th. I recall liking to say that date because it sounded neat. It was perhaps on my 8th(?) birthday when I realized it was 28th. I'm not sure how I went that far not knowing my real birthdate, but then again, maybe that just went to show how much birthdays really didn't matter to me.
They seem to be a bit ego-centric and silly the older I get. If it weren't for the people around me, I wouldn't engage in ceremony of any sort. I've forgotten my own birthday in the past if that gives you any idea how excited I am by them. I don't mind celebrating other people's though. I actually just had one and when my girl asked me what I wanted I told her to just cook me dinner (I usually cook) and have a mellow night at home. She argued that it was not exciting or celebratory enough and insisted that she at least take me out to dinner, and I conceded. In the end though I won by getting pretty sick, so we stayed in and she cooked me a nice homemade tomato pasta soup. Even though I was sick I quite enjoyed it. Exactly what I wanted :P
To me it seems that with age it no longer matters whose birthday it is. It's just a celebration because there's a reason to celebrate. The reason I'm looking forward to my friend's birthday next month isn't because I'm excited that he's made it this far without dying, but because there's a reason to get together with some friends and enjoy each other's company. Birthdays aren't for a single person; they're for everybody.They seem to be a bit ego-centric and silly the older I get. If it weren't for the people around me, I wouldn't engage in ceremony of any sort.
Pretty much why I don't mind celebrating other people's :) Happy Birthday by the way.The reason I'm looking forward to my friend's birthday next month isn't because I'm excited that he's made it this far without dying, but because there's a reason to get together with some friends and enjoy each other's company. Birthdays aren't for a single person; they're for everybody.
One of my favourite ones, my girlfriend and I were in Sydney, Aus. She bought me a little cake and we ate it sitting in one of the beautiful parks there. We then proceeded to go back to the hostel and party with people we just met. I don't think I drank that much, but I'm reasonably certain that I smoked a lot of weed with some cool people from all over.
Strange that you ask this today of all days, as it is in fact my birthday. I am officially 21 now and could be out at a bar right now. But I have a performance in the afternoon. I'll try to arrange to meet up with some people on Friday or Saturday night. Freshman year I didn't do anything for my birthday. I hadn't made any real friends in my dorm and most of my friends from high school were hours away. I ended up just sitting around like I had done for all of freshman year. Last year was slightly more eventful. I had made some friends from the school that I transferred to and one of their birthdays was just a few days before mine so I actually spent my birthday with people. But usually I sit around thinking about how I'm bad at both making friends and keeping in contact with people. I've never put much weight into birthday celebrations (throughout my childhood and teenage years we would have a special family dinner for birthdays), but it still gets to me that other people are having way more fun than I am on their birthdays.
Me too, but celebrated last night. Happy birthday! Maybe just try having a good time on your own? 21 is a hyped up birthday. On my 21st my friends got me started by making me drink 6 prairie fires, which is tequila and tobasco sauce. I would much rather have hung out and had a really good meal, but that's the way it went.
I dunno, it seems to me that certain spices can be really transformitive in a good way, and in the oddest of places. I had a dark chocolate cupcake with cayenne pepper the other day that floored me. I know the Aztecs figured this out waaaaaay before me, but damn was it good...
Happy birthday to you too! So far, so good. Had our performance and went to get drinks before our dance practice. It's already been the best birthday I've ever had. If I go out next weekend with some more people it will only get better. Also one of my best friends is turning 21 in exactly one month, so getting to celebrate with him will be an even better time.
Last year was my 21st, which involved getting drunk to the point of throwing up. The problem wasn't that I'm huge on alcohol, but that it was free. Most years are uneventful, I've never been a big fan of birthdays. Always thought of them as being a "Yay, I managed to go a whole extra year without dying!".