Why do we observe celebrating our birthdays? What is it that we are toasting? Is it the fact that we have survived another year against many odds? Are we tinkering about our progress we have gone through, our overall achievements? Is that symbolizes a new hope for us to live our life for the year to come?

None of the above, it would seem.

If we are remembering the past year, would we still drink to it if we have some bad news about our health? Not likely, but why? What is the relevance of information about the future (our own upcoming death) when one is celebrating the past? The past is immutable. No future event can spoil the fact that we got it through for another year. Then why not celebrate this fact?

Because what we think is not the past. Our birthdays are about the future, not about the past. We are celebrating having arrived so far because such successful resilience allows us to continue forward. We proclaim our potential to further enjoy the gifts of life. Birthdays are constructions of unbridled, blind faith in our own suspended mortality.

But if these all are true, surely we have less and less to celebrate as we grow older. What are the reasons do septuagenarians have to drink to one more year if that gift is not easily guaranteed? Life provides diminishing returns: the longer you are invested, the less likely you are to reap the dividenda of survival, life insurance for example. Indeed, based on actuarial science, it becomes increasingly less rational to celebrate one’s future the older one gets.

Thus, we are driven into thinking that birthdays are about self-delusionally defying death. Birthdays are about preserving the illusion of immortality. Birthdays are forms of acting out our magical thinking. By celebrating that we exist, we bestow on ourselves protective charms against the meaninglessness and whimsical nature of a cruel, impersonal, and and most often a universe bombarded with hostility.

And it works most of the time. Have a no prescription - Happy birthday!

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