Epiphany.

I have had an epiphany.

Now, this doesn’t happen often, and when it does I usually get a good bit of writing out of it, but we’ll see. I don’t like to promise those sorts of things, because you all come to expect them of me. What kind of writer can write on expectations? None I say! No one can write with readers bearing over their shoulder, breathing down their neck, bursting the imaginary bubble. It’s impossible.

So I’m not promising anything good to come from this epiphany. Nothing at all. In fact, this post may be so horrible that you want to stop reading right here and now, never to pick it up again. I wouldn’t blame you if you did, really. You never know what sort of turn it may take.

Then again, it could be a marvelously wonderful post, the most amazing one you have ever read. And in that case I would not advise you to stop, as you may never run into anything as breath taking. Who knows the next time you will see something written so amazingly? Who’s to say the next time you’ll run across something so superb? I surely can’t.
My guess, though, is that this post will run down the middle. It will just be okay. Then again, I am a little biased as I have written it. So my opinion may not mean much. Take it with a grain of salt, eh? Which is something I’ve never understood. Why would you only take it with one grain of salt? That won’t make it any better; it will just make it the tiniest bit gritty. It won’t add flavor, it will just be a pain to shake the salt shaker and only get out one piece of salt, but I digress.

Actually, I am way off topic. What was the post supposed to be about again? Oh, right.

I have had an epiphany*.

Today is my grandmother’s birthday (happy birthday, Nana.). And on my way home from school earlier, after being thrilled because I got to leave early (as I didn’t have to take my afternoon final) I was wondering “Why is it that we wish other people Happy Birthday?” Is a birthday really any different then any other day? You wake up, roll over, turn off the alarm, go back to sleep, wake up again, turn off the alarm, force yourself out of bed, fall face first onto the ground just like any other day. There’s nothing special about a birthday, really. There’s no bubble around you yelling “THIS IS A PRINCESS, IT’S HER BIRTHDAY.” That just doesn’t happen.

So why is it that people feel the compulsion to wish others a Happy Birthday. And then I got to thinking some more, and I was contemplating the whole birthday idea. We’re another year closer, another year closer to being 6 feet under. We’ve lost yet another 365 days, never to be able to get them back. Another summer, another winter, another fall and another spring are all gone, now only a memory. Really, this is an occasion for mourning, not celebrating! We should be sad to lose all this time, for it to slip by so quickly.

About this time, I had the epiphany. I realized, that when people wish us happy birthday, they don’t really care about the birthday. They just don’t want us to be sad, because we’ve lost the time. They want us to be happy that we’ve had it, and that we can reflect upon it. They want us to rejoice in the things we have been given in that time, the relationships we have made, the good times we have shared. Yes, it is truly sad that those things are gone, but more will come. We must remember those good times, and look forward to the ones ahead.

You know, people are really thoughtful.




*That is a BUGGER of a word to type.