As readers know, I celebrated a birthday yesterday. I had a friend contact me afterwards who is a very wise lady and whose words of wisdom and conversation I always appreciate. Friend. You know who you are and you mean a lot to me. This friend reader the blog I wrote yesterday and was saying that they thought it was excellent and then said something that surprised me “And you were thinking about that on your birthday too!”
Now, that’s just a paraphrase, but I found it interesting. I’ve got another friend who has learned that he has to watch what he says around me. If he says something, he’s liable to get me going on on a long tangent for a long time. It’s just the way the mind works I suppose. I’d even say a lot of insights I come across just come from hearing what people say and pondering on it, which is where Parmenides said we can learn a lot of philosophy in Plato’s dialogue named after him.
My thoughts immediately were, “The reason why some people don’t think on their birthday is not because it’s their birthday, but because they don’t think on the other 364 days of the year.” If you are thinking on those days, it will be no problem to think on your birthday. In fact, you will be thinking on your birthday like on any other day.
Could there also be something to this with our holidays as well? For non-American ones, I am going to be listing some of our American holidays here, so you can supply your own equivalents if need be. Holidays I believe are to remind us regularly of what we should be doing all year long. I don’t think God wanted the Israelites to remember the exodus from Egypt only during the Passover.
Do I have a hard time being thankful on Thanksgiving? It’s probably because I’m not thankful the rest of the year.
Do I honor my Mom on Mother’s Day? If I don’t, maybe it’s because I don’t honor her enough during the rest of the year.
Do I really give thanks that I live in a country where I am free to worship and speak as I wish? If I don’t, it might make sense if I have a hard time recognizing the 4th of July.
Do I take time to remember those who died in war so that I could live freely? If I have a hard time on Veteran’s Day, maybe it’s because I’m not doing that the rest of the year.
What about the incarnation? Could it be Christmas can be hard for some because they don’t celebrate the incarnation the rest of the year?
Could it be we miss the reality of what happened on Easter because we don’t spend enough time throughout the year acknowledging the resurrection?
Now I’m not against these holidays either. I think they’re good times because they also have a great community aspect to them. We should be seeing them all year long though. We should be celebrating the reality of each of these all year, including our birthdays as our existence is something good to celebrate as is that of our friends and family.
So, do I think on my birthday? I hope so! If I’m not, then maybe I should be seeing what I’m doing the rest of the year.
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