Birthdays

Well here we are in September, and apart from the fact that all the schools have gone back and the roads are now cluttered with mothers and their precious kids doing the 300metres from their house to the school, this is birthday month. Now a few seconds thought about timings indicates quite quickly why there is a preponderance of birthdays around this time of year. And it would appear that this particular family and associated psuedo-relatives is no exception. The first week alone has 4, though one has demised so we don't tend to celebrate that one explicitly. But the others all require cards and of course some celebratory gift. Woe betide you should you happen to forget! The rest of the month is merely host to another 3 or 4 birthdays, but at least there is a short space in which to catch ones breath between them. What madness!

My mind is drawn to that timeless children's tale by Lewis Carrol; Alice in Wonderland with the Mad Hatter's concept of celebrating unbirthdays. The consequence of this could be that all the celebrations tail off into meaningless blur - where one day is undifferentiable from the next. Or maybe it should be interpreted another way - that every day is worth celebrating, and that to save it all the joy up for a single day in the year is madness. So it's make your mind up time ... just how mad was the Mad Hatter? And a very happy unbirthday to you too!