Successful Birthday Party
When Howard asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year. I answered that what I really want is to not feel stressed about bills. I would much rather have the money than presents this year. It is a true statement and yet I was still worried that I might feel sad or depressed when the day of my birthday arrived and there was little to mark the occasion. Howard fixed that quite effectively. He created a facebook event and invited lots of people to my virtual birthday party. The party isn’t fancy. Mostly it consists of people emailing me to wish me a happy birthday. It is really hard to feel depressed when my email box is buried in messages celebrating the fact that I was born 36 years ago today.
All of this started me thinking about gifts. Sometimes there are things that I want, a book, a movie, clothing. Sometimes I want these things very much. Usually when this is the case I arrange to acquire the things. But what I want from a gift is not really the thing in the package. For me the real gift is the acknowledgment that I matter, that I am valued. The thing in the package is a symbol of that, but isn’t strictly necessary. This year Howard gave me a marvelous gift. He wrangled a bunch of friends to reach out to me. He planned it all himself without me having to put forth any effort at all. Because of that it matters even more.