The Birthday Bump

So, we just celebrated my little sister’s birthday party and she’s now turned 19. She can now do all the stuff that adults can do but with the added advantage of even knowing what she is doing. Somehow that gives me feeling of pride in the fact that she’s all grown up but it also instills a fear of the loss of innocence in my kid sister. But I guess it’s pretty natural for an older brother to feel this way. Right? RIGHT?

Anyway, let me come to my point.

Why do we celebrate birthdays?

Why would we want to celebrate something that’s unquestionably taking us closer to death?

If we go to see the mechanics behind it, I think a lot of us will indeed find this tradition of celebrating birthdays completely pointless. There may be a certain justification to it such as that when we are young; it is celebrated as an occasion of growing in wisdom, strength and experience and when we are old, as a celebration of a life long-lived and of time well-spent in this world.

But, I ask, what if birthdays were a conspiracy. Yes, stop rolling your eyes and hitting your head on the wall for a minute. Please keep reading. So, what if this is all part of a great conspiracy by those companies who manufacture cards and gifts? You know, even the bakers may be in on this scheme. What if they have been keeping this utterly meaningless tradition alive just with a view to keeping themselves in business?

Wedding anniversaries may or not be happy occasions, death anniversaries may not be celebrated, brother’s – sister’s – mother’s – father’s days may be optional, but birthdays are bound to come around every single year and if the number of people who can buy cards and gifts around the world can be calculated, I’m pretty sure we’ll get a tidy sum of profit for a lot of companies every single financial year.

Many conspiracy theorists say that many of the ‘Days’ we celebrate are actually phony events set up and well-planned by corporations who mean to draw in the unsuspecting and socially conscious people who will celebrate anything from friendship day to valentine’s day, given that everyone else is also doing so. It is maybe for this reason alone that the following sentence exists:

“The Mass is Dumb.”

People, individually no matter how smart they may be, but as a mass they will always be dumb and be led by the smart guy wearing a suit and leading them on a tether to the slaughter. It is a fact that no man can live as an island, cut off from human contact, and as a direct relation to the same, he/she becomes part of the mass. And the mass is dumb.

Got you, didn't I?

Just think about this the next time you close your eyes to wish for something as you blow out the candle over you BIRTHDAY cake.

Cheers!