Birthday haters appear to be winning hearts and minds because America is poorer, more secular, and more tired than it used to be. Fortune, faith, and youthful exuberance fueled much of birthday mania that gripped the country for most of my lifetime. I say that the haters are winning because I would have thought a truce between birthday revelers and haters might look something like this: celebrate the kids’ birthdays with gusto, have a bunch of twentysomething bar hops, and tolerate actual parties on birthdays that end in zeroes and, maybe, fives. In fact, people are struggling to maintain even that level of merriment at present.
Makes you wonder who blew out Jeremy’s candles, doesn’t it?
Birthdays are mysterious. Why, for instance, do I and so many of my close friends have birthdays astrologists tell us are connected to the constellation Libra? Born nine months to the day from New Year’s Eve, I don’t think I need a star chart to answer that. My friends and I come from partying families, especially holiday partying families. Stands to reason we’d come across one another at a party, sooner or later.
Birthday celebrations go back, way back. Believing evil spirits visited us on the anniversary of our births, our just-out-of-the-trees ancestors set torches on fire, stuck them in mud pies, and ordered us to keep the flames alive. You could look it up. Can you measure the birth of “advanced” civilization by finding the moment we began to blow out the torches rather than keep them flaming? Just a thought.
It’s true that the level of celebration depends somewhat on the wealth of the celebrants (duh). But candle wax burns, life waxes and wanes, and birthdays come and go. Party on.
With a special birthday wish today for my sister, Janice.
Glenn W. Smith has spent the past 30 years in journalism and politics, where he’s made a name for himself as a writer, campaign manager, activist, think tank analyst and, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” “There’s no one like him,” says author George Lakoff. CNN commentator Paul Begala says, “He has unmatched experience, a graceful pen (or pixel nowadays) and deep insight into the best and worst of us.” Novelist Sarah Bird speaks of his “lucid and lyrical” prose. And, she says, he’s fun. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says Glenn writes with “grace and abundant humor” and “uses his colorful experiences in Texas to enlighten us all.”
Smith led Ann Richards’ successful 1990 campaign for Governor of Texas. He worked for former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Earlier, Smith was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He’s coordinated national campaigns for groups such as MoveOn.org. In 2004, he authored the highly acclaimed book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. He also wrote Unfit Commander, a book that detailed George W. Bush’s mysterious disappearance from military service.
In 2004, Smith was featured in the film, Bush’s Brain, a documentary about Karl Rove. Smith provided commentary on Rove’s role as then-President Bush’s senior advisor. He has made numerous media appearances with Chris Mathews on Hardball, Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, and many others. He writes a regularly for top national web sites, including FireDogLake and Huffington Post.
As a senior fellow at George Lakoff’s prestigious Rockridge Institute in Berkeley he studied, wrote and taught on the power of metaphor and narrative in political communications. He also lectured on religion and politics at the Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley. As a sponsor and organizer, he has pulled together numerous national events with progressive religious leaders. He also organized a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at Riverside Church in New York City as well as “Freedom and Faith” bus tours, which was a nationwide campaign for social justice and progressive values.
Smith’s play, Double Play, which explored American Western myths and legends, was held over to sold-out audiences. He’s even written and performed songs in the Americana tradition, such as his best-known song, “Helping Marty Robbins,” a tribute to his hometown, Houston.
Most recently, Smith is the creator of DogCanyon, a political and cultural web site covering state, national and global issues from a Texas perspective. DogCanyon is an exhilarating and unique site that gets the connections between politics and culture and explores both the personal side of politics and the ups, down, craziness and beauty of “life its ownself,” as humorist Dan Jenkins would say. DogCanyon offers heartfelt personal essays, hard-hitting political analysis, and, most importantly, laughs.
As Paul Begala said, Smith writes in “the finest, firmest, fearless tradition of Texas essayists like Molly Ivins.”
Jeremy Lott, of the popular ezine, SpliceToday, frets about the waning popularity of birthday celebrations. Lott writes:
Okay — that’s probably the coolest birthday wish yet!!! Thanks, Glenn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Come April, how can you top this? I can’t wait to find out!