A million thanks for all the birthday wishes yesterday. It was overwhelming, to say the least, to learn that there are that many people out there who would stop their day for a few seconds to say hello or send a card or text message. In fact, at the risk of sounding like a whining first-worlder, toward the end of the day I had to switch my phone and computer off because I was feeling… er, bombarded is too strong a word. Maybe “snowed under” is more like it. Part of it was like, “aaaack, I’m never going to be able to respond to all of these individually!” Which is true, and I just have to accept that. I think maybe others had already accepted it and weren’t expecting personal thanks, but I come from a time and culture where after a celebration, you sat down and wrote out thank-you cards to everyone who did something nice for you. Nowadays I suppose it’s enough to say thank you a few times in relevant public forums, and assume people will get my message (as they assume I got theirs).
The other part was that a lot of people said some very nice, very specific things to and about me yesterday. Perhaps surprisingly, as narcissistic as I am, I have neither the affinity for mush, nor the talent for handling thick streams of compliments. It occurred to me this morning that it’s a good thing I never got my childhood dream of worldwide fame, because I realise now that I’m not the kind of person who would handle that very well. On the other hand, perhaps if I’d been famous for most of my life, I would have built up the skills to deal with attention more gracefully. Who knows.
In any case, many thanks to everyone who sent cards (both paper and electronic), SMS messages, Facebook comments and PMs, blog comments, e-mails…. what else… oh, Flickr comments and PMs, of course, and… everything. Just everything. Thank you.