They Never Had A Birthday Party
I happened to see a piece tonight, probably on cnn.com, about a set of twin girls who are now six years old and have not yet had a party on their actual birthday, which is today.
They also have a feeling they are somehow responsible for the attacks, having been born on the very day it happened, in the same city (or nearby).
If I have it right, their birthday party is held on the nearest Sunday, which seems to reinforce the idea that “their” day is bad and, perhaps, so are they. That’s not good; they barely understand at age six what the phrase nine-eleven means, but do realize their birth date somehow is so bad they can’t celebrate it the same way as all their friends.
Yes, medically speaking, we do control the date of our birth. When we are ready to face the world, we start the process which brings us to the point of being cuddled by another man’s wife. But we don’t choose the event-day of our birth and by the time we are old enough to understand that something went terribly wrong that day, we shouldn’t also learn that our parents have been hiding our day of birth celebration because of it.
I was just five months into my development when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. There was scant television in those days and none in Hawaii. It was a military outpost and not to be a state for almost twenty years. It was a Day of Infamy (and a day of screw-ups, as well), but we don’t talk about 12/7 as we do 9/11. Had I popped out on that day, I’m sure we would have held my birthday parties on schedule. At least, I hope so.
They also have a feeling they are somehow responsible for the attacks, having been born on the very day it happened, in the same city (or nearby).
If I have it right, their birthday party is held on the nearest Sunday, which seems to reinforce the idea that “their” day is bad and, perhaps, so are they. That’s not good; they barely understand at age six what the phrase nine-eleven means, but do realize their birth date somehow is so bad they can’t celebrate it the same way as all their friends.
Yes, medically speaking, we do control the date of our birth. When we are ready to face the world, we start the process which brings us to the point of being cuddled by another man’s wife. But we don’t choose the event-day of our birth and by the time we are old enough to understand that something went terribly wrong that day, we shouldn’t also learn that our parents have been hiding our day of birth celebration because of it.
I was just five months into my development when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. There was scant television in those days and none in Hawaii. It was a military outpost and not to be a state for almost twenty years. It was a Day of Infamy (and a day of screw-ups, as well), but we don’t talk about 12/7 as we do 9/11. Had I popped out on that day, I’m sure we would have held my birthday parties on schedule. At least, I hope so.
posted by Tom Carten at 11:39 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home