go lori, it's your birthday

my good friend and partner in coop disgrunteledness (is that word?) sent me this ecard today.

i just don't understand folks who don't want to celebrate their birthdays. ever since i was in elementary school, i remember being in awe that i had aged another year. maybe i was super-deep (ha), but i particularly remember my complete amazement when i hit the double digits....whoa....10 years old.... now that i'm 34, and i hope a bit wiser, i still feel this moment of pause each birthday. be it the recent loss of a friend, or the old loss that still stings, each year that i can add one more number to my age i am pretty impressed that the universe or god or whatever has chosen to let me keep on keepin' on. many don't make it to 34. as my friend virgil reminded me, i am now older than jesus!

also, on this day everyone should really take a moment to think of their moms. regardless of the relationship you have with your mum--if she's your BFF or you're in indefinite therapy because of her--she labored (and that verb has never been more accurate) you into the world on this day. she was either cut open, or squeezed you out of a once very tiny hole so that you could join the human race.

when i was big and pregnant, i would stare at the diversity of people on the subway as i rode to work and was mesmorized that each and every one of us is born the same way. there's no way around it: your birthday signifies the day that a woman's body expelled you into this cold and wonderful world. and that, my friends, deserves all the celebration we postmodern cynical freaks can muster.

thanks for all the bday love. make sure i know your birthdays so i can give it back :)