Voice

[foolishjustice]

I have...something of a strange dilemma. I came here six months after my birthday, and arrived six months ago...but my birthday is in June. Based on actual length of time I've been alive, I just turned nineteen...but my birthday isn't officially for another half a year.

Do you think I should just go ahead and start listing my age as 19, or would it be to confusing for the people who know what time of year I was born? I know I've already told a few people I'm a Gemini, so waiting would be simpler...but it feels a little weird, going an extra half a year between birthdays.

Comments

[foolishjustice]

I've never really celebrated either, so it doesn't matter to me either way. It's weird thinking about my birthday being in Winter, but not any weirder than being on a completely different planet.

[whateternityis]

They've got Christmas at the wrong time of year anyway. Not sure if they just didn't want it overlapping Passover and Easter half the time or what.

I thought birthdays were a fairly universal thing among humans, though.

[foolishjustice]

I've...never really paid much attention to Christmas at all, to be honest. I never had any family or lovers to celebrate with.

And...for most of my life, I didn't really...think of my birthday as something to celebrate. And even if I did, it's traditional back home for someone's friends to arrange their birthday party. I never had any, so...

[whateternityis]

Lovers? That's a new one.

[The birthday bit sucks, but there's no need to rub that in.]

[foolishjustice]

It's considered a couple's holiday in Japan. Most of us don't observe it religiously, but it's common for couples to eat together and trade presents.

I'd get things from fans, of course, but...never anyone that knew me well enough to get anything particularly meaningful.

[whateternityis]

Hardly the same as having company, either. [What did Yeshua do to deserve having any of this shit associated with his birthday. Even at the wrong time of year.]

I guess that's one way to take 'this thing is clearly important in the West but not to our cultural context.'

[foolishjustice]

It's better than trying to force it into a religious framework that doesn't really accommodate it.

[whateternityis]

Like the bright spark who tried claiming Yeshua actually got to your neck of the woods, at the end of it. He decidedly did not.

[foolishjustice]

That's...another name for Jesus, right? Last I'd read, he died in Europe, when travel between the West and the Far East was still incredibly difficult.

[whateternityis]

That is his name, before they Latinized it.

I think technically Jerusalem's western Asia, but yeah. Great big bugger of a land mass in the way. Not exactly the easiest thing to circumvent without help, not while maintaining the kind of image he was going for.

We did pass through China, as part of the 'around the world in 40 days' package, but the travel was my doing.

[foolishjustice]

Chartering a boat capable of crossing oceans back then definitely wouldn't have fit the rejection of excessive wealth he was known for.

Besides, I think another foreigner preaching spiritual beliefs would've made it into our old legends.

[whateternityis]

As things stood, no boat necessary. And evangelism wasn't the point of the trip, either.

Probably would've caught someone's attention if he had, though, yeah. Most people assume he spent that whole time moping in the desert and starving himself, but that'd be a right waste of a month.

[foolishjustice]

Confucius and the Buddha are pretty well-known in Japan, so I'd be pretty surprised if Jesus visited and didn't get talked about.

And moping in a desert does sound pretty pointless.

[whateternityis]

I was trying to talk him out of going along with what looked to me like a bloody suicide mission.

He took it as more reason to do the thing. Said it'd be all right in the long run, and I guess maybe it was, but...

[Crowley sighs.] No one deserves that shit, least of all for suggesting people be kind to each other.

[foolishjustice]

Unfortunately...people usually don't get what they deserve. If the world was fair, there wouldn't be such a market for superhero stories.

[whateternityis]

If the world was fair, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion from this angle.

[foolishjustice]

If the world was fair, a lot of things would be different.

[whateternityis]

So they would.