The Misconception of Birthday

By

Ebi Robert

There is a plethora of debatable conceptions, convincingly expended by people without any form of probing in their use. While some use such words which might be compound or not, without doing the probe, others like me access the permutation of letters and end with a ‘why’, where the need arises.

‘No man is above mistake’. I learn not to follow the crowd, but the crown; for the one with the crown in the crowd, stands out. In other words to proffer rejoinders to some inevitable queries, I have created a kind of series which shall be addressing such questionable concepts of aged usage if possible and seek to highlight an alternative if any. It shall be titled “Ebi’s Play”.[1] The titling spur is drawn from one of Finnis’s basic human goods; Play. But here I have settled something more philosophical, something before my seat of the Ionians. Sequel to this, this treatise being the first of the series begins with the theme of Birthday.

A DATE AND A DAY

¡feliz cumpleaños! That would be my wish to folk if I were a Spaniard. Then I can say that a psychological emotion has been triggered. But how accurate would my articulation be, per diction? I must have made meanings better than a hiss, yet not accurate as a hiss, I would say.

As typical, I look out for the true definitions before my conclusion. By this, it was only fair I consulted the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, (7^th ed) at page 137. In it, I was told that the Birthday is the day in each year which is the same date as the one on which you were born. An epoch the celebridad is gifted with noncrystalline silica, the first count of one’s eon. Flowing from the above, it can be basically opined that the Birthday is the day in each year in which one is born. Invariably, the Birthday befalls every year. This is either fallacious or a misconception because the Birthday is once in the life of the celebrant, at best what might re-occur is the birth-date and I shall expatiate with an illustration.

It was a cloudy day and the drizzle showed itself. A funny wind blew and kicked up the hat that had been seated on Michael’s head, exposing the fresh cut he got from the force of the machete, say yesterday. The rush was to meet up with the blissful fete the compound’s wives had recorded. Michael Junior’s umbilical cord had been severed. This birth was just ten minutes away and the date was 13^th June 1990. The activities that occurred as far as I can remember were numerous, 25 years after an opal song was sung for ‘Caroline’, all because 13^th June re-occurred. Well, it’s a choice but let’s try these questions:

• Was it 13^th June, 1990 that occurred or 13^th June alone?

• Is our current 13^th cloudy or otherwise?

• Is our current 13^th with a furious drizzle?

• Was our current 12^th recorded with a fresh cut of Michael?

• Is our current day with the self-same events of 1990?

Fat food for thought, I guess. Birthday comes and goes, birthstones might come, but birth-dates come and come. Birthday is for the celebration, birth-date is for the anniversary, and date of birth is for the record. A Birthday comes just once in a lifetime, but the birth-date repeats itself with a different order of events, though sometimes similar but not the same. Proto tanto I am used to the former, a shift shall never be vexing verity. This way, the Saul is made Paul.

[1] A probe of the “Mind Academy”. The mind Academy is a school of the mind which has scholars probing various concepts, ideas and orders from different fields; ideas believed to be faulty in their use and proffering an alternative to the probed concepts, although fun-filled, but logical.

Ebi Robert

Ebi Robert is from Bayelsa State of Nigeria. He is a poet, essayist and playwright. Born in 1990, he has written many poems. Among them are ”Moon Poetess’, ‘A love mathematics’, ‘Lord of My Love’, ‘Nigerian Girl’ and many more. He has also co-authored books: ‘Emanation, Foray into forever’ edited by Prof Carler Kaplan, ‘Epitaph’ Edited by Kiriti Sengupta & William S Peters, ‘Love a Four Letter’ word edited by Raja Williams, ‘Tribute To Mandela’ edited by Prof Matiu Olawuyi, ‘Epistles of Lies’ edited by Agarau Adeyemi and Iruesiri Samson, etc. His proven poetic prowess is evident in some of his uncommon write ups, which earned his ‘Pantoum’ a place in  the current issue of Asian Signature, a literary journal. Other mediums that have featured his works are, poetic diveristy, the Union Newpaper, to mention a few.  He is currently studying Law in the Niger Delta University of Nigeria.