Luck has Nothing to Do with Birthdays

Last night, I was looking up from my chair.  The white string tied to the right arm of my chair lead up the way to find a balloon wafting in the cross breeze of the air.  The bottom of the balloon is surrounded by bright colors leading up to a colorful "Happy Birthday!" topped off by a candle.  I found this balloon, along with a card and a gift on my desk Monday morning.  It was from a close colleague of mine, one with whom I have worked since day one.

Like the balloon I have!

As I looked to the underbelly of the balloon, I began to think about meaning of all the traditions in birthdays. While driving home, these thoughts turned to the origins of the celebration.  I thought about how families traditionally worked.  When most of the country was still being settled, even in the rural areas of Europe or other nations, having a large family was imperative to running the farm.  There were animals to feed, crops to care for and good to sell.  Childbirth carried dangers to the mother, a woman who was crucial to the raising of the children.  Death was prominent in a world where medicine consisted of bleeding or balancing the Four Humors.

Having children was, while important, not a luxury either.  All the girls needed dowries to marry appropriately, money or gifts to offer their future husbands.  All the goods (woman included) were given to the husband to become his property (thus the changing of the last name).  There were more mouths to feed in the home, availability of food depending on the success of the crop and how well it did at market.  Many famines occurred.

On the drive home, I thought about how when my family came to celebrate my birthday.  How my mom embraced me, wishing me a happy birthday "to my eldest girl!  Happiest day in my life!"  I am being celebrated when really, it is she who should be celebrated.  Mothers get one day to have all they do celebrated when really it should be celebrated everyday, including on a child's birthday.  We are very fortunate in this day and age to have the luxury to celebrate the birth of a child.  In the past, it was out of necessity and motherly/wifely duty that children were born into a marriage.  Now, having children is something that can be almost predetermined (if you include the availability of birth control).

Every birthday is a gift in life.  Many won't see as many birthdays as you or I might see.  The world is quick to take gifts like life away from us.  It seems as though every medical advance we have made is met by an improvement on the part of illness.  We are seeing more and more "superbugs" that medicine is constantly trying to keep up with.  But for now, let's celebrate the world and the day as it comes.  I have had my breakfast and enjoying my second cup of coffee.  My morning is about halfway completed.  Our little dog is chasing after flies and all I can think of is how blessed I am to be a quarter of a century old and enjoying the world I am in.