I can’t shake the feeling that the desire to celebrate becomes less the older the birthday child gets. “I think I’ll just keep my rounds a secret. Let’s just go far away,” said his loved one, really believing that he could succeed. Of course, he made this plan without neighbors and friends who had been asking months in advance where the party would take place.
At some point he couldn’t cope any longer and came to the conclusion that – following an expression – one should celebrate the festivals as they come: So we reserved a suitable “location”. The reluctant anniversary recipient sent out the invitations – and from that moment on I became the secret birthday manager.
“What does he want? What community gift are you planning?” his good friend asked me via text message. And I had to admit that I was completely clueless. Calls and messages with similar questions increased: everyone wanted to know which present would be the most suitable or original.
During a quiet hour, I conducted an investigative interview and asked the soon-to-be celebrant in a particularly clever way whether he had any secret wishes.
My yield was sparse, but at least at some point I knew for sure: just no vouchers! Maybe a few bottles of wine. It can also be shared experiences.
The latter sounds relatively modest, but it is quite challenging when it comes to planning, as you have to ask many different people to take their diary and see whether they would have time at some point for a trip, a concert, breakfast together, a visit to a museum… I spent what felt like months secretly coordinating, making phone calls and thinking with different groups of friends about what we could do with a 60-year-old who loves to go ski touring in the winter (which many others don’t do) and collects summit crosses in the summer.
In any case, he will experience a lot of new things next year. Supposedly it really keeps you young.
