Celebrate your birthday if you can, but remember it was an occurrence you had no input in!
By Stanley Collymore
Birthdays and the invariably gratuitous celebration of them by
countless and usually nondescript persons are supposedly
meant to be special occasions happily devised by those
who are determinedly intent on observing what is for
them their big day. By why, and for what singular
or plural reasons go overboard with so many of
them? because those that have liberally taken
to indulging themselves in this way, realize
they were basically born? Scarcely stellar
deduction, I’d have thought, for the kind
of hubristic, exaggerated or other such celebrations of the
kind favoured in this narcissistic glorification of one’s
self, since like none of us those individuals who’re
usually, directly and most obsessively taken up
with the immersion of themselves and what
they’re actually thinking, can’t truthfully,
nor can anyone else even in their very
wildest dreams, rationally claim to
have performed any role, wholly
or otherwise, in their creation.
Which effectively means that from the onset of the
circumstances surrounding, for the most part,
their not always straightforward conception
and throughout the subsequent pre-natal
process of their eventual development
into hopefully fully-fledged human
beings, the entire outcome in essence had absolutely
nothing at all to do with them and most definitely
wasn’t any of their personal doing. So do bear
that in mind, those of you who’re selfishly,
egocentrically and appropriately swayed
to habitually overlook most or all this;
and, instead, be thoroughly thankful
to Almighty God: yours and very
much so my own indisputable
Creator, that you’re actually
and most blessedly here!
Stanley V. Collymore
1 July 2017.
Author’s Remarks:
It’ll doubtlessly be argued that as a direct recognition of being in this world it’s only natural that the individuals involved, and there are now billions of them globally, along with their respective family members, friends, colleagues and associates celebrate what’s perceived by them as a very important outcome; another year’s duration, for those individuals who’re celebrating the occasion, presence in this world of ours. A plausible enough, when looked it, but by no means a definitive response, nor should the latter be the case in relation to it without irrefutable and corroborative evidence to support that contention.
But it’s a private matter I hear you say, and what people either decide to do with or in in their personal lives is an issue that must, or should at least, be left entirely up to them and, as such, is or ought to be a relevant counter argument. Fine! But sensibly only if that outcome is specifically limited or in other ways restricted to those directly involved.
However, experience and common sense informatively instructs us that that usually isn’t the case, and through observing other peoples’ customary behavioural habits, especially if those persons are influential and powerful, can, and invariably does, decidedly affect and shape the conduct of others, and all the more so if those observing and inculcating the behavioural patterns of their “idols” are basically intellectually challenged, exceedingly gullible or wholly unthinking, in their every action, persons in the first place.
So is this proposal a blueprint for policing, enforcedly cancelling or even proscribing perceived “un-merited” birthday celebrations and the linkage between them and one’s presence here on this Earth? Certainly not in terms of celebrating through the reembrace of one’s birthday, however that individual chooses to legally do so. And as long as they’re not tempted to think or actually believe that what transparently and objectively to others and as regards themselves is a veritably useless life isn’t being celebrated and, what’s more, fulsomely portrayed as something particularly outstanding when evidently it is not!
So enjoy your own birthday whenever that is, and the good fortune too that the Almighty God has not only given you life but also graciously as well awarded you with an extension of it on earth, so as to improve not only your personal attainments but equally too avail yourself of the opportunities available to assist, in the process of your being allowed to carry on living, wherever and whenever that you altruistically can, others to similarly do the same.
That then is essentially what this poem, and in its article form also appended with the same title, is all about as I celebrate with my Partner and those closest and most special to me my own birthday on the 4th July 2017, and in doing so am both fully cognisant of as well as thoroughly committed to everything that I’ve said.
