For those of you who are also my friend on facebook, or for those of you who know me well, you will know that today is my birthday. Some people have said to me that they hope that I took a rest day today to enjoy my birthday. It's funny, because that's actually exactly what I wanted to write about today: how I purposely chose to make today the longest day of our trip so far, over 100 miles of riding from Mexico to Marshall, Missouri (near Slater).
First of all, the major reason why I don't want to cry and certainly won't is that the Bruins won the Stanley Cup last night. A long time coming, both for me and for the Bruins franchise. Boston is now certainly the greatest sports city in the last decade or so. Something I read this morning: the Patriots, who last won the Superbowl in 2005 (the 2004 season) are now in the longest championship drought of any Boston sports team. Wow.
Another reason I'm not going to cry is that today was a beautiful day. We crossed the Missouri River, saw a family of raccoons, had some nice cool weather, and biked along the Lewis and Clark Expedition Route. Unfortunately I had given Thomas the camera to take pictures of the city of Columbia and did not have it with me when I was on the trail. But I saw some Native American carvings on the rock that Lewis and Clark wrote about many years ago and crossed through Diana Bend. If you want to see something beautiful, look up Diana Bend and the trail and such and you'll wish along with me that I had the camera with me. All of it made the 100+ miles today worth it, more than worth it. My legs actually feel better at the end of the day today than they have in a long time.
100 miles on my birthday, though, is something most people would balk at. Why push yourself on your birthday? I always hear people say that they don't understand why they have to work on their birthday. I also hear people say that they should be able to do or get whatever they want on their birthday. Most often, of course, I hear people say (and see them follow through with it) that their birthday is a time to "go crazy" with partying, drinking, and losing all inhibitions. Whether we admit it or not, most of us think that "celebrating" our birthdays in this way is appropriate because we deserve a day to do whatever. We are special enough to do whatever we want. We are something special.
I really believe that at the heart of things we love birthdays because, indeed, we think we are something special. Partly for this reason I have stopped caring about my birthday. Surely I appreciate when people wish me a happy birthday and I'm not about to get angry with them, I genuinely thank them (and I generally thank you, if you wished me a happy birthday). But I am nothing special. I also don't like to think that I'm getting older, so those two things combine to make me not want to celebrate or think about my birthday. The important thing remains my antipathy to the general attitude of self-appreciation that abounds in American culture.
Thomas and I have been really getting into Game of Thrones on this trip, since we have HBO in most of our motels. In that show, instead of referring to birthdays, they talk about namedays. I like that because, in my opinion, it takes the focus off of us and onto the meaning of our name within our family's history. A lot goes into a name that we often don't think about (and nowadays I'm not sure parents put much thought into it anymore). When I was in South Africa, one of the best experiences I had was when a number of people told me the stories behind their names and what they mean. They, too, don't think about celebrating themselves but think of their namedays as a blessed time to see the whole family, that loving group that gives each individual meaning.
No matter how solitary I may prefer to be, I have no meaning, none of us have meaning, without our families. Without the people who surround us with love in our life we have no meaning. Those people have created us, shaped us, and helped us along the path of life. No point in celebrating you. Instead of expecting other people to give us stuff and give us a good time, on our namedays we should celebrate the people around us and give them gifts of our appreciation and love.
Yet that is impossible for those held in slavery. Many of them have been abandoned by their families because the parents didn't have the money to support them, many have been sold into slavery for the same reason, many grew up in "good" families but are tricked into slavery and isolated from their families. Whatever the cause of their bondage the result is the same: those held in slavery have no one around them to love them, and no one around to love.
There are many people in our world today who are not trafficked in any way and also find themselves in similar situations. Their nameday will be empty because they have no one to show gratitude for. Can you imagine living without people who love you and without people to love? I know that I can imagine it and it's not pretty. I don't want anyone to have to live without love in their lives and without the opportunity to properly celebrate a nameday.
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