We’re down at work all day today, so I am very bored. Reading through google reader, I came across this from overheardinnewyork.com:

Young boy #1: Today is the day your mother birthed you and you only got five dollars?
Young boy #2: We got troubles.

This got me thinking about birthdays and how we celebrate them. This year, on my birthday (9/26 folks!), I will be celebrating 34 years since emerging from my mother’s womb. We will celebrate this no doubt with dinner and possibly a small gift from my parents. Why? Why is the celebration with my parents for me? Why not for them? All I really did was seek new scenery on that heady day in 1973. This desire of mine caused mom great pain and cost mom & dad plenty of money; not to mention the many thousands it cost them over the following years. I can understand my friends celebrating my birthday in the ‘traditional’ way because they didn’t play any part in my coming to be. They’re celebrating my presence, my being… they’re celebrating me. I suppose the same argument could be made for my parents giving me presents on my birthday, but shouldn’t I be especially thankful for them on the celebration of the day I was born?

You might say that’s what Mother’s & Father’s Days are for, but I have a plan for them as well. Those should be a mini-christmas for immediate family. Think of it this way:

Birthday:
Me: Thanks, mom & dad. Thanks & sorry. Sorry for all the bad, stupid, immoral, illegal things I did that you put up with/took the blame for/paid for. In know you were looking out for me, and I know I let you down all those times.

Thanks for having me. I wouldn’t be here without you. Without your guidance, wisdom, discipline, acceptance, understanding or sense of humor, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

Mother’s/Father’s Day:
Me: Mom/Dad, thanks for having me. Thanks for raising me… aww hell, you know all this from my birthday. Still, thanks. It means a lot. Couldn’t have done it without you.
Mom/Dad: Thanks for making us parents. Your father/mother & I couldn’t have done it without you.

So basically birthdays, between my parents and I, would be about me thanking them for having me. When you think about it, existence about the best gift a person can get, right? It only makes sense that I should be thanking them after that. Mother’s/Father’s Days should be about us thanking each other. Me for their parenting and them for my making them parents and filling their lives with something other than disposable income, romantic getaways and social freedom.

It’s a pretty slow day. This made more sense in my head.