I celebrated a birthday earlier this month. My family took me out to dinner. I got phone calls and cards. My friends at school got me lots of chocolate! It is always nice to be celebrated. I deeply appreciated how people made my birthday special.
The icing on my birthday cake were the nice greetings on Facebook. They are short, for the most part, and simple –and that is fine. As I wrote a while ago, I enjoy getting birthday greetings on Facebook. It feels good that people thought about me and are wishing me well. Each morning, I do the same and write a birthday greeting for my Facebook friends. If I have a good picture, I might include that, too.
The truth is that my greetings, and most Facebook birthday greetings, are brief and superficial. Some of my younger Facebook friends send each other elaborate photo collages, embarrassing SnapChat captures, or long missives of devotion, but these seem to be exceptions rather than rules.
Like many people, I don’t have enough time to write a long letter to all of my friends having a birthday. Some are more acquaintances and I am not sure what I would say.
So here is what is going through my mind when I wish you happy birthday on Facebook:
Happy birthday to you! I hope today provides you an opportunity to be celebrated and fêted. I hope that, whatever your birthday wishes are, you are able to make them come true.
I am so glad that your birthday gives me a chance to communicate directly with you! Seeing your photos, liking your posts, hearing about your adventures keeps me connected to you, and I like that. If we haven’t talked in a while, know that miss that part of our friendship.
I cannot overstate how wonderful it is to hear about your graduations, vacations, jobs, weddings, family, special events, interests, and thoughts. When I read them, I hear them in your voice, and for a while, across the distances and years, it feels like we are together.
Know that thinking of you brought me joy. Know that, although I may not have photographs of all of our shared memories, our past is very much on my mind as I write these quick little words to you. Know that I am honored to be a friend, Facebook or otherwise. Know that, although you may have several hundred (or thousand) such friends, that does not diminish the value of our relationship in any way to me.
I worry about writing the wrong thing for your birthday, so I keep it simple and standard. If I have a good picture, I might share it. If I don’t share it on this birthday, I will try to share it in the future. But when I do share it, I will worry that you won’t like the picture. If you don’t like the picture I shared, go ahead and delete it or tell me to do so. I won’t mind. I am sharing it because I don’t remember if I showed it to you before. Now you saw it.
If you wrote me a birthday greeting, thank you. If you did not, that is okay, too. Some of us don’t do that. Some of us don’t use Facebook that way. No judgment there. Don’t worry about it –and certainly no guilt, please! There is enough of that off of Facebook.
So may this be the best year ever. May this year bring you and those for whom you care health, happiness, purpose, and goodness.
And may we do it all again next year!
Live Long and Prosper,
David
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