19 Jul 2010 Vrindavan, India
Category: Identity
In the course of comparing which things are hidden or open in the west and in India, we noticed one more thing, actually mostly in America which I would never even think of hiding: your birthdate.
Whenever someone comes for a program, a workshop, spiritual healing or counseling, Ramona gives them a form to fill their details such as name, e-mail address etc. so that we can inform them when we will come back again and about our children charity projects in India. Plus there is a field for birthdate which people fill and then we can encourage them to sponsor food for their birthday and we send them birthday greetings.
One thing that we have noticed more in the US than anywhere else is, that people do not want to fill this field. They fill everything else and just leave this one empty. It is men and women who do this. Some even write their day and month but not the year. So they absolutely want to hide their age.
Let’s think about why that is. Obviously they do not want to show how old they are so that you don’t get to know that. So they do not want you to know, maybe out of fear that you think they are old. Now why would that make a difference for me if I knew your age? I could guess if I wanted to but usually I do not care at all. Why? It is only a number! There are teenagers and young adults who already seem quite old. There are old people who still seem very young, are very active and you would never know how old they are.
It actually only shows how much focus is put on this one number in society. It is important not only to look young, but to be young. You cannot change your age, why would you hide it?
Tags:: Birthday, Fear, Food, Identity, Society , America, Sponsor, Teenagers
4 Comments
Posted By Swami Balendu
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It is so sad that people feel like they will be judged by their age. Often people are sad when it is their birthday because they are now a year older. Age is just a number! It is how you feel and how you act that matters. Make the most of everyday and regret nothing.
Reply By Eliza on April 30, 2012 03:00
There definitely does seem to be a fear of aging in the U.S. Somehow we think that having our age revealed will make people judge us (but only if we are older than we seem). But I wonder, why associate with a number anyway? People will receive your energy and presence regardless of how old they think you are. And what is the problem with aging anyway? Youthfulness is a state of mind. And with age we gain wisdom, experience, knowledge, and awareness. How many times have you heard people say "I would never want to re-live that experience." Because life is always moving forward, so move with it! And if someone really does judge you because of a number...then why value their opinion anyway?
Reply By Emily on October 05, 2011 01:15
Gotta have numbers everywhere, everything has to have a number to qualify it in Western culture, and it's a mind f@$%.
Reply By Darie on November 06, 2010 03:05
I think it has less to do with age and more to do with a sense of security. In the US there is a problem with identity theft. We are encouraged to not reveal information such as our complete birthday, address, social security number or other personal information which could be used to open a fraudulent account in a person's name. Even my brother had his identity stolen once, and didn't find out until Zale's sent him a bill for $10,000 worth of diamonds! It took a long time to straighten out, and we even got a videotape from a store showing this person using a fake ID and my brothers' name to open a new credit account and attempt to purchase electronics. This problem is fairly new, only happening in the past decade or so, but it does leave a person with a sense of caution and reluctance to reveal information for even innocent things such as your birthday reminders, for fear that it could be found out by someone with bad intentions in the future. I'm not saying that everyone thinks this way, but that it is something that is in the culture these days. =) <3 Robin (33 :-) )
Reply By Robin on July 22, 2010 10:02
Today was the last day of the school year 11/12. The children got their report cards, the olde...
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