For those of you who hate birthday(I'm ambivalent myself) here is a thought: instead of birthdays, which are so egocentric and self-important, we should celebrate our death day. Now it sounds morbid on the face of it but listen: we pick a day of OUR choosing and celebrate our eventual death.
When you are born you have no choice as to when where and to whom you are born. But our death day, we get to choose. We choose not as dependent infantile human beings but as autonomous and free and beautiful people.
And on this day we reflect joyfully and with a good deal of sarcasm on our eventual death. Instead of a birthday where you go "one more year closer to death" on your deathday you reflect back on the year you had and say "fuck, I am alive and i had a pretty decent time of it, I wonder what this year will be like? I hope it doesn't suck..." And then you take another shot of tequila.
You see, a celebration of death is more of a celebration of life then a celebration of birth. But its not supposed be all that serious. Someone's death day is a day for morbid jokes, and laughter, and irony. Looking at how fucked life is and laughing at it with friends and drinking too much, laughing too much, talking too much, life in excess on the day your eventual death. And the whole idea of having a "deathday" on the face of it is morbid and hilarious and ridiculous and flies directly in the face of this stupid institution called the "birthday". Oh, and no gifts on deathday! On your death day you give gifts to your friends; gifts low in monetary value but high in sentimental or intoxicating value. (ie handwritten letters, framed pictures, shots of tequila ect)
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3 comments:
what a GREAT idea! well, i happen to love birthdays, other people's more than my own, but there are a few people who i'd rather celebrate death for... wait? that's mean. what are you, all EMO now? i'd like to help design the greeting cards...
Deathday here I come! I will wait till I come and then we can get rascado together and celebrate our eventual deaths... the thought of the day will be whether we rot or leave a permanent mark on the planet! very happy pensamientos. do you think people comit suicide because they were unhappy about the fact that they couldnt choose whether to be born or not, but liked the fact that they themselves could control the moment they die? control freaks, eh!
That reminds me of the cliche saying "i wish i would have never been born" Well if thats how somebody fells maybe they shouldn't celebrate birthdays, they wont be happy occasions.
But your deathday, well, if your in a shitty place and not too enthusiastic about life you can look forward to eventually being released from suffering through death, and if you love life it will remind you to REALLY love life and not take it and the people you share it with for granted, to value the life you have experienced and the life that you hope to experience in the future with all its joys and disappointments.
Speaking of suicides, isn't that they are suicidal because they feel a lack of power over their lives, their thoughts, themselves? They essential feel like infants (completely dependent and powerless) without a mother to take care them. There are documented case of orphans who for lack of physical contact with a mother quickly die. They give up.
A birthday is, while yes a celebration of the person also a celebration of being a dependent and powerless infant. Thats just fine when you are surrounding by caring and loving people, and have stable support networks to lean on but what about some of us who don't have that? Thats where the death day celebration comes in, its a celebration not of life as a powerless infant but as a powerful full and dynamic human being who suffers and feels joy and hates and cries and loves and feels compassion and and lives in the world and lives in life.
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