Happy birthday to me :/

As you people may know, I prefer not to observe my birthday. To me a birthday observance represents a day when it's "all about me."  An idea I reject because it should never be about me but about others.

But I do understand this:  tens of millennia ago humans existed on the plains and in the forests, and faced dangers and threats to their existence daily. There was safety in numbers, and humans formed groups and communities so as to thrive and propagate the species. Threats came from the weather, from drought, from famine, and from wild animals, but most of all, from competing tribes.  The men left the community for the wilderness to hunt and to gather food. The women stayed home, maintained the village, nursed and protected the children. Communication across land masses did not exist.  As centuries passed, and tools were developed which permitted extended travel, individuals at times tended to form their families a distance away from the original group or move away altogether, a risky prospect.  Men found partners elsewhere and sometimes never returned. The group became scattered and lacked a nucleus.  Women felt a responsibility to produce the glue to bind the community together so as to ensure safety in numbers, to reproduce, and to maintain alliances for the future survival of the tribe.

And so a series of inane secular holidays were created.

Birthdays. Mother's Day. Father's Day. Valentine's Day.  Any reason to call the tribe together for a day to remind everyone we are family and to always be there to protect one another when the inevitable mortal attack arrives at our doorstep.

So for this reason only, I accept and appreciate your happy birthday wishes.