Today's post is an ENCORE post from Thursday, April 24, 2014 on the occasion of my birthday.
You may ponder the calendar today and observe that it is the 23rd of April.
So I am a bit early.
Tomorrow, April 24th is on a Saturday so I've got a special Songs For Saturday featuring the music of the Beatles that they would've performed at their concert in London on the very date of my birth, April 24, 1963.
Yes, I am old.
And this weekend's Cinema Sunday features a movie with a character who also has a birthday on April 24th.
Anyway, cutting myself a little slack on this, the impending weekend of my milestone of 1 more year of having not died, here are my thoughts on my birthday from 7 years ago.
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Birthday Boy!
One fun thing to experience on one's birthday is having "Happy Birthday to You" sung to you. Which can be extremely awkward.
Someone actually owns the rights to "Happy Birthday To You" so that's why waiters in restaurants sings other little ditties like--
"The good news is we sing for free!
The bad news is we sing OFF KEY!"
Of course there's some wise ass at work who'll do the classic song but with different words.
"Happy birthday to you!
You live in a zoo!
You look like a monkey!
And you smell like one too!"
A phenomenon of birthdays as one gets older is that it's apparently OK to mock one's inevitable collision with the Grim Reaper's scythe.
And once the fat and sugar in that cake hits your arteries, you'll be even closer to death. So, yay, cake?
But you don't see anyone pulling this on younger people:
"Oh, you're 4 years old now? Ah, how sweet! So based on your projected average life span and barring any accidents or serious illness, you're now about 70 years away from death! Isn't that great? Why are you crying? Hey, are you going to eat that cake?"
But somewhere around 40 to 50, it's just fine to decorate your cubicle with black balloons and faux tombstones wishing you to have a happy birthday AND rest in peace.
But as the clock ticks down on your mortality, the honor of having lived yet another year means the birthday guy or gal is treated... no, not with respect but is subject to humiliation.
Like being forced to wear a hat.
But at least there's cake.
Do you know what this Whovian needs on his birthday? A greeting from the Doctor!
You may wonder what I might want for my birthday. Really, there's one thing that would make my heart happy:
All of you, just be good to one another! Do that and I'll have the best birthday I could ever hope for.
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