On Birthdays

The strangest thing about insights is, they come to you in the most anti-climactic way. I was wandering around the house and what occurred to me is, Birthdays aren’t about you at all. I always thought they were a dim affair of mundane tediousness and routine. To celebrate the day I was born into this planet with cake, confetti and candles seems moronic, if not petty! But then I realized, its not about me. Its about all those people who helped get me here. In my case, its mostly my parents who gave it their all to see to it that a child born with a congenital heart defect would live to see this beautiful and limitless universe. My mother who had to let go of the idea of having another child, which must be one of the most painful things for a parent, because she didn’t want another kid who’d take away her attention from me. My father who’d toil away at work but rushed immediately to school if one of my teachers told him I was feeling unwell. Those are the things we celebrate on birthdays. They are days we remind ourselves, that we are alive not simply because of ourselves. And that is true of orphans, people with divorced parents, single mothers/fathers, and any myriad of guardians that looked over us. Simply human kindness that defies logic, reason and evolution are the reason you and me are alive today. That is what we honour on birthdays. Our collective compassion, our collective altruism, and our collective humanity.

Happy Birthday! =)