Philosophers seldom write about the ordinary things in
life, which are nevertheless meaningful from a philosophical point of view.
When doing some research for my last blog I had to conclude that one of the few
philosophers who writes about Christmas is Wittgenstein, but actually his
remarks on Christmas are casual and they have hardly anything to do with its
philosophical meaning. When you want to read about the meaning of our daily – often
“banal” – activities, you get at sociologists like Michel de Certeau and Marc
Augé. It’s true that the Swiss-British philosopher Alain de Botton writes about
everyday themes like travelling or the news and what they mean for our art of
living; themes that are more sociological than philosophical and that are avoided
by most – but not all – other philosophers. But who writes philosophically
about such an ordinary theme like birthdays?
In many countries outside the western world birthdays
don’t count. They are not important and often ignored. Nowadays, dates of birth
are registered everywhere, of course, but when people are asked how old they
are, they often reckon only from the year
they have been born. Whether they have passed already the date of birth at the moment they are asked for the age is not
important for them. What’s more, for some people even the exact year of birth
is not important. A vague indication of age suffices, as a person working with
immigrants in the Netherlands told me.
How different it is in many western countries. It’s clear
that I cannot speak here about all countries and cultures, but in countries
like the USA, Germany and the Netherlands birthdays are really important. They
are so important that you simply must
celebrate them. The practice is, of course, that a substantial number of people
doesn’t but also they do it in some way: If you don’t celebrate your birthday you
must have an excuse why you don’t. It simply cannot be ignored, full stop.
How do people celebrate their birthdays? Preferably a
birthday needs to be celebrated on the day itself, but when that isn’t
practical or possible, usually it’s celebrated on a day in the weekend before
or after the actual birthday. Then a party is held, big or small, the guests
are treated, presents are given, and striking birthdays (like coming of age, or
the 50th) are often celebrated in a special way, etc. I don’t need to go here
into detail, since everybody knows. How interesting would it be to make a full
philosophical study of this, for not everybody celebrates his or her birthday
in the same standard way. Some people chose just the birthday for doing
something special. They go to the theatre on that day. They make a long walk,
alone or with others. Or they take a short holiday break, especially on
striking birthdays, instead of giving a party (or they do both). And did you
know that in the Netherlands on a birthday party you have to congratulate also
the partner and family of the person whose birthday it is, and that the latter
has to treat also his or her colleagues on his/her workplace?
But when you become older? Most people tend to give
less and less attention to their birthdays after a certain age. Their children
and close family and friends come to congratulate them, they treat them to
cakes, and some call them up if they cannot come, but that’s all. Not so Robert
Marchand, a French cyclist. What was his greatest wish to do on his 103th
birthday? To take his race bike and to climb the Col Robert Marchand in the
Ardèche in his country (he himself lives near Paris). However, there were two
problems: the weather was not really good on this 26 of November and actually
he wanted to climb only slopes that are at least 15 degrees, and this one is 11
degrees. But okay, it was his birthday, and so he conquered the 10km climb in
under an hour, and at the top he took a glass of Champagne. On his 104th
birthday, he cycled some 20 km of a stage of the Tour the France cycle race of
that year in the Ardèche. And he celebrated his 105th birthday a few weeks ago by
cycling 26,927 km with friends from his cycling club. Why just this distance?
Because it is the world record in one-hour track cycling in the over-100 age
group. I suppose that I don’t need to tell you that the record is his (cycled
on January 31, 2014). But the real way he’ll celebrate his 105th birthday has
yet to come, on Jan. 4 next (see my blog next week). Should I still explain how
philosophically meaningful birthdays are for understanding ways of life?
No comments:
Post a Comment