On Birthdays

In Faerie, one is born and reborn on a routine if somewhat irregular basis. One cannot help but engage in a process where losing pieces of oneself while absorbing newly found components in a continuous process of dissolution and aggregation results in a change of individuality on a daily, if not more frequent, basis. In such a context, the idea of birthdays, of setting aside a special time to commemorate the arrival of a particular child onto the scene, takes on a markedly different meaning. In one sense, it adopts a cloak of meaninglessness, so common to the residents of Faerie, since it seems rather arbitrary to pick one instant in time as the focal point of the celebration of a process that never stops and is still on-going, especially when the choice is an anomalous point at one extreme that poorly represents the cumulative timeline. At the same time, the stuttering process of improvised adaptation, which others call life, is without question sufficient cause for a jubilee or anniversary gala. In Faerie, like the process itself, the celebration is continuous. Just because one wakes up and finds that child and tells her "Happy Birthday" every day does not diminish the sentiment that one's life took a turn for the better on the day that she appeared and each subsequent day since.