Why do we observe celebrating our birthdays? What is it that we are proud of? Is it because we survived another year? Are we tinkering about our progress we have gone through, our overall achievements? Is it a sign of new hope sprung eternal to live another year?

None would matter maybe..

If we are commemorating the year that passed, would we still drink to it if we have some bad news about our health? Not likely. But why? How is the future relevant (our own looming death) when it is the past that we are celebrating? We cannot change the past. No future event can corrupt the fact that we have made it through another 12 months of struggle. Then why not celebrate this fact?

Because it is not the past that is foremost on our minds. It is about our future, not of the past. We are observing having arrived so far because such successful resilience allows us to continue forward. We proclaim our potential to further enjoy the gifts of life. Birthdays are expressions of unrestrained, blind faith in our own suspended mortality.

But if these all are true, definitely we have less and less to celebrate as we grow older. What reason do octogenarians have to drink to another year if that gift is not easily guaranteed? Life provides diminishing returns: the longer you are invested, the less likely you are to reap the dividenda of survival, life insurance for example. Indeed, based on actuary tables, it becomes increasingly less rational to celeberate as we grow older.

Thus, we are driven into the conclusion self-delusionally defying death are what birthday meant. Preserving the illusion of immortality are what birthdays mean. Birthdays are forms of acting out our magical thinking. By celebrating that we exist, we give ourselves protective charms against the meaninglessness and arbitrariness of a cold, impersonal, and and most of the time a world of hostility.

And it works most of the time. Have a no prescription - Happy birthday!

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