Everyone has a birthday. Animals, plants, humans, and even inanimate objects - simply everything around - but the time at which something is truly born can be subject to discussion (sprouting of the seed or the first shoot out of the soil?) But everything was nothing at some point.

Or was it? Who knows. It’s a matter of interest from multiple perpectives, whether philosophical, scientific, or even political (think of discussions on NASA’s budget allocation). But for the sake of simplicity, let’s go with the assumption that everything has a birthday. (Wow, what a simplification!)

The way animals or plants celebrate is by…existing. They probably don’t even realize they’re actually growing old, or ponder upon the mysteries of wrinkles - as long as they have their basic needs met for existence, they’re not even aware of the notion of a birthday.

But we’re different. We have at least the notion that something is periodic and that there is one day every year on which we get the “hmm, time to think” moment for a few hours. But change is slow, and as Calvin and Hobbes express it:

Calvin and Hobbes Every Day

Bill Watterson does put across profound ideas in a nice way. Must learn from him.

People’s treatment of the concept of birthdays is so varied - some seem to find it very sacred and enjoy every birthday by throwing grand parties (the scale of grand is subjective) and really cherishing every moment of this “special” day. It means a lot to them to celebrate and be wished on this momentous occasion. Energetic.

Then there are some who just consume the red pill and treat the day as a mere revolution around the sun being complete. Zero displacement. Wow. No point. Just move along with the day.

However, I think it’s nice to combine both worlds and have an intermediate approach - having close ones close and a nice, warm time together to mark the day - but at the same time realizing that the day is nothing too special inherently. It’s a time to reflect on life thus far and see what is something that needs an obvious change, and what seems to be working. We as humans also thrive in the anticipation of good events, rather than the events themselves.

Oh well. I guess it was a nice birthday.