It was someone's birthday yesterday. Yesterday they got up in the morning and wondered, maybe aloud to themselves, if anyone would remember. They got up and wandered into the bathroom, scratching their behind or their head or just sort of stumbling in that half-awake daze and they came to rest in front of the mirror. They looked straight into the depth of themself and asked a lot of questions - a million miles a second - and not one said out loud and not one, not one answered.
It is someone's birthday today and they are wandering around in the city, the country, the halls and tunnels of this society, and they are placing huge weight on this single day in their long long year of life. They are waiting hoping breathlessly thinking that maybe, just maybe, someone will say hi, buy a beer, congrat for making it another year.
Birthdays are validations of human existence. Birthdays are like a human reality check: "still here? still exist?". When someone buys you a cake, when a roomful of restuarant workers sing you happy birthday, when people call you "because it's your birthday", your existence is realized. Without birthdays, we are bodyless souls wandering among the world, like sixth sense, like a deadman interacting with the living world.
Birthdays are affirmations. Birthdays are certificates of existence. Birthdays are like headstones for the living: proof that here, now: I am.
Tomorrow is someone's birthday. They will wake up to a family, friends, music, Good Morning America on the TV. They will smile and bounce off the bed, drink some coffee, have some tea. They'll bask in the glow of the day and the warmth of the people and they'll modestly thank everyone for their well wishes. They'll excuse themselves from work early (and that's okay - it's their birthday) and they'll make their way to a gathering place with people, lots of people. Presents will be opened and new things explored. A shy speech will be made and, when the night is done, kids fast asleep in the back of the wagon and the road rumbling softly underneath, a warm soft glance will be made from one spouse to another. A wordless conversation will ensue:
i exist
yes, you do.
thank you, i had forgot
well that's what i've been trying to say for months now
sorry, i forgot
it's okay, you know now
yes, i do. thank you.
no, thank you.
i exist.
yes, you do.
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the guys: philogynist jaime tony - the gals:raymi raspil
