My son’s birthday is today and I was surprised to read what he thinks about that.
Like many adoptees, I hate my birthday, and whether through nature or nurture, wonder if I’ve passed along those feelings to the next generation.
It’s pretty easy to understand why birthdays wouldn’t be favorite events for adoptees. They are occasions of pain, reminders of our involuntary separation from the people who created us and our inevitable estrangement from the people whose chattel we became and with whom we are gratingly incompatible.
But why a “normal” should not want presents or a celebration – aside from the traditional multi-layer, mocha mousse and chocolate ganache cake – causes me to reflect….
Are birthdays a reminder that our dreams and plans haven’t panned out, that for one more year, we haven’t accomplished what we wanted in this mortal coil?
In this super-competitive society, which over-values money and sex appeal, have birthdays become days of atonement rather than a time of celebration for everyone but the top 1/10 of 1%?
How do you feel about your birthday?