How To Take Your Birthday Like A Man

Terrible fun, aren’t they, birthdays?

The cake, the cards, the gifts – and how we do love being the centre of attention. There’s just one problem, though. Spend too long in the limelight and it starts to eat away at you, exposing your soul and the egotistical monster that lies within.

Today, I’m turning 28. I admit, but one that belies my experience when it comes to the matter of growing old gracefully.

So what, then, is the appropriate way for a grown man to behave on his birthday? That’s why I’ve decided to draw on the collective wisdom – to compile a handy gentleman’s guide to not screwing up your birthday.

01.

It’s not all about you:

The point is this: while it’s perfectly normal to attach a certain personal significance to your birthday, it’s worth keeping in mind that to everyone but you, it’s just another day. Hence our first rule of birthday etiquette: develop a sense of humility.

02.

Peter Pan Syndrome

Sure, a temporary relapse into infantilism can be appealing, for several reasons. We, all of us, yearn for a return to our childhood and the innocence, reciprocated love and sense of protection that the years have taken from us. But birthdays should be a time for celebration, not for laying bare your deep-seated subclinical psychological issues for all the world to see. There’s nothing creepier than a fully grown man trying to pretend that the past three or four decades didn’t happen.

03.

Refrain from moaning about how "old" you are

What is it, after all, but an annual ' memento mori', a silent reminder that you’re one year closer to welcoming death’s cold embrace? Try to remember, though, no matter how old you get, there will always be someone older than you.

04.

Social media:

Take the social media attention in your stride, don’t lie. If you use the internet - you also have a Facebook profile and probably some online friends to fill it. You’ll have noticed, then, that in recent years the social networking platform has become the de facto channel for sending insincere birthday greetings to people who don’t like or know you well enough to give you a proper card.

“Happy birthday!“ you might write on the Facebook wall of someone you haven’t seen since college. "We should catch up soon!" (Should, and won’t).

But a gentleman knows not to let this sort of thing go to his head. He also knows the correct way to deal with such messages, which is to ignore them. It’s the gushing “thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone! #BLESSED” sent a day later. Empty words, tossed into the void.

05.

Be the right kind of party animal:

Your friends or your family love you and are there to support you, but that doesn’t mean it’s OK to subject them to any of the following: Extending your birthday to a “birthday weekend", Expecting them to buy your drinks all night.

So, blow out your candles, buddy :)

✠

Comments

And the cars has a long century history

For a long time, the car was the ideal way to communicate wealth to the outside world. There is no doubt that this phenomenon has always existed, throughout the ages and in every countries: the car has a long history of use as a means of self-projection, a completely public and symbolic object with which we become one as we drive. That as a child I always thought to be a car of choice for the distinguished man. The German-American art historian Erwin Panofsky once examined the famous Rolls-Royce radiator grille and noted its similarities to antique temples. Even John Lennon fell victim to its aura and bought a Rolls-Royce Phantom V Touring in 1966 – only to have it painted almost immediately to look like a circus wagon in bright yellow with flowers and scrolls. An ironic gesture with which Lennon humorously took the classic status symbol to absurdity. Representatives of a younger affluent generation in particular are increasingly to excellent racing or invest on the cars expensive i...

TAKE IVY by Teruyoshi Hayashida

Take Ivy is a fashion photography book which documents the attire of Ivy League students. The New York Times described it as “a treasure of fashion insiders”. Take Ivy has been the Ivy League bible for Japanese baby boomers, among whom the Ivy League look is very popular, though original copies are very rare in the West, garnering auction prices as high as $2000. Take Ivy was authored by four Japanese sartorial style enthusiasts and is a collection of candid photographs shot on the campuses of America’s elite Ivy League universities. The series focuses on college-aged men and their clothes, capturing the unique fashion of the student population of that time. Whether getting a meal on campus, lounging in the quad, riding bikes, studying in the library, in class, or at the boathouse, the subjects of this photographic compendium are impeccably and distinctively dressed in some of the finest American-made garments of the time. Shosuke Ishizu, the director...

Gentlemen’s clubs savour quiet success

A recent visitor to White’s, the venerable gentlemen’s club housed in 18th century splendour in London’s St James’s, walked up to the bar to find it occupied by three dukes. “It’s the one place in town where they feel totally at home,” he said. Such encounters are custom-made to reinforce the stereotype of a traditional gentlemen’s club: a place of fusty exclusivity, where elderly gents snooze in leather armchairs beside marble fireplaces, disturbed only by the occasional retainer. Ranged against modern London’s raucous pleasures, including a new wave of tie-free, wifi-enabled rivals, these relics of 19th century culture would seem doomed to slow decline. Yet not only are they surviving but many are thriving, with membership and usage growing. “Standards have risen enormously since the 1980s,” said Rupert Lendrum, club secretary at Buck’s in Mayfair. “There’s been a significant shift to professionally run clubs and finances are far healthier.” Buck’s was dreamt up by cavalry offic...

The II Earl

Search This Blog