Excesses

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom- William Blake

Today, I received a birthday wish from my bank. Last week, I got a birthday card from Hallmark, with a coupon to use during the month of my birthday. Yes, it is no secret that I was born in July. The interesting thing is how many people have taken note of that.

I expect my children, parents, siblings, boyfriend and closest circle of friends to know when it is. They usually forget, but at least they can look it up or figure it out if need be. I do not expect an excessive amount of attention, but I do like a small token from time to time.  My niece has a birthday today, so I asked my daughter, “why isn’t her birthday showing up on my Facebook reminders”? Reason: “Mom, she doesn’t want everybody in the world to know her birthday. I don’t have mine published either. If someone wants to wish us happy birthday, they can do it because they want to, not because some computerized system alerted them to do so”. Well, I do say! Perfect logic, but unexpected coming from those younger than me. Why didn’t I think of that?

So, is it excessive for every vendor or website to ask for your email address and birthday? I am thinking it might be. Excesses can lead to the palace of wisdom according to our quote by Blake, but usually they are associated with negative learning.

Remember, the office has a birthday list for coworkers. We don’t give gifts, but that list can be used to see who hits 40 or 50 for the black cubicle dressage.  The insurance agency sends a note, my dentist, doctor, veterinarian ( oops, they send one for the dogs), and two banks I thought about getting a refinance mortgage with.  Come to think of it, the DMV sent a note to come get my driver’s license renewed during my birthday month, my job sent a note saying get all your annual training done before your actual birthday or you are out of compliance to complete your annual evaluation and good grief -my annual physical is due.

Is anything good happening on my birthday? Everyone is adding tasks or advertising in association with my special day. When did this all happen??? We used to get our annual employment screening and evaluation done on the anniversary of our start date. Why did everyone move all this routine- try to remember it stuff to our birthdays?

These could be examples of excesses of the modern age, defined as an amount of something that is more than necessary, permitted, or desirable. If everyone had to send me a hand written birthday card, I would get 2. One from my Aunt Margie and one from Karen- that’s all I would ever expect. The kids would call me, others would see me and hopefully someone would bake a cake. Now, I have to field all these corporate greetings, remember to get several different licenses renewed, finish my day long annual training for work, and sort through my Facebook friends’ remembrances!

I suppose I should focus on the benefits- I do get a coupon good for a free dinner from the cafeteria at work and I have a birthday coupon to save $10 at Hallmark on a purchase of $40 or $5 on $25. Good time to buy some birthday cards, eh?