Matt Walsh’s anti-birthday stance went viral last week. The commentator views birthdays as “just about the most banal and boring thing in the world” and does not think it a worthwhile endeavor to congratulate adults “for simply existing.”
This past weekend, I celebrated two family birthdays and the soon-to-be birth of a new family member; my family lives in California, and I live on the opposite coast, so it was a treat to be home for so many celebrations. Walsh’s viral comments came across my timeline shortly after a giddy three-year-old blew out her candles on the fourth try.
Most either love or hate birthdays. I loved my birthday as a child. It falls around July 4, so my family and I would go to San Francisco, stay at our favorite hotel, and watch fireworks from Crissy Field. We’d eat clam chowder, and my parents would hit up the Buena Vista for to-go Irish coffees. It was the perfect tradition. I appreciate my birthday less now that I don’t spend it with family every year. This year, I’ll be home in California — my one sports team, the Sacramento Kings, are playing a summer tournament on my birthday, serendipitously. Birthday celebrations don’t have to be grandiose, but existence, especially if you’re blessed with health and loved ones, is nothing not to celebrate.
Obituaries are my favorite pieces to read and write. To sum up someone’s life, their accomplishments, and what their existence meant, in just a paragraph or essay, is a challenging, artistic, and romantic feat. The dead are often memorialized with words we wish we could’ve said when they were alive. Birthdays give an opportunity to tell someone how much you care for them (sometimes, even though we shouldn’t need an excuse to tell someone, we do).
Surlier people than I may disagree. Though isn’t it always nice to be reminded of birthdays? James Lynch’s favorite birthday was his 21st, in July 2020, during Covid lockdowns, he tells me. His family (he is a triplet) rented out a house on an island . . . he said, smiling, that thinking about past birthdays brought back a flood of happy memories.