what's weird about birthdays

what's weird about birthdays isn't the fact of passing the mark of a year, becoming numerically speaking a year older.
what's weird about birthdays is trying to figure out what to do with them. for two reasons.
1. generally people are taught to at least preTEND to be humble. so how does one act graciously in the face of all the birthday wishes and congratulations and open demonstrations of affection?
2. people are also generally taught not to openly express huge amounts of affection or appreciation for others. it's just not something we do on a regular basis. it's ok when it's a holiday like christmas or thanksgiving or something, where the entire society is geared up to be more loving toward one another. but when all that affection and attention is turned toward YOU, Emily Jane Leigh of Nowheresville Kentucky (pardon, Kentuckians, but I have to pick somewhere) it's somewhat... disconcerting.
now, whenever one of my friends expresses the wish to be ignored on their birthday, i am immediately up in arms. it's a day when others get to celebrate you, i say. they are reminded to think about how you have affected their lives, and how happy (or otherwise, but hopefully happy) they are that you're alive. It's a time for your loved ones to celebrate your birth. The idea being, that the celebration isn't so much for the person being celebrated as it is for those celebrating.
that's a nice line, and fully true when it's other people's birthdays. that is, in fact, part of why i like celebrating people's birthdays. but, when it comes to my own... well. it feels like a different matter entirely. (the cyinic in me says, of course it does.)
at any rate. in case you hadn't guessed, my birthday's coming up. it's an odd number, but that's all i'll tell you. not 'cause i'm lying about my age, but because this is the ineternet. who knows who could be snooping around?

over 'n out.
E.O.