Happy Birthday to ...me

Another birthday, another reminder that I'm getting older. But don't get me wrong I don't feel as if I'm getting older but better. Growing into my skin you could say. I look forward to the day when I can get my freedom pass, complain about the disrespect of young people today(I'm already doing this), and pass wind loudly in the middle of a rude carriage and laugh my toothless mouth off.  LOL.

But you know I discovered something out recently which makes me gratefully for living in a big city everyday. I work with a number of people from all over the world and I discovered that in some cultures birthdays do not have as great a significance as it does in Western society.
In the Western world a birthday is a day of celebration. It is a day to rejoice with other members of your family and friends that, I was born, I am part of a community, this is a rite of passage. A birthday says YES I exist. But if you are born into a world where you don't know where your next meal is going to come from, where your home is shelled almost daily by enemies of your state, political party, culture, religion, creed, class, or race, or where the fact of being born female is more likely to send up waves of lament rather than applause then, yes, a birthday isn't something you look forward to or even bother to remember.

Personally, I don't really "celebrate" my birthday. I know it's there, I acknowledge it but it's another day for me and I get on with it. I suppose when I was younger there was more of a significance. Age 7 the age of reasoning, Age 13 Puberty(eke!) Age 16 can learn to drive(still haven't), age 18 can vote,  21 can drink etc. There were all milestones and "rites of passage" in a growing individual life. But side I've been over in the UK My focus has been more on surviving and making sure I do the right thing for me to succeed. When I look back at it between the ages 24 and 30. I barely noticed the day. The one big day I started paying a little more attention was at 30. Where I tried to get drunk for the first time in my life and failed miserably. I ended up getting tipsy, slipping my drink all over my best friend and trying to lick it off him. Hmm, maybe I did get drunk. I'll hate to think I did that while sober. :-)

So anyway here's to me (and you if you are celebrating a birthday today) being on the wrong side of thirty and growing old disgracefully.