John Johan Booth

Apropos of Ann's birthday entry yesterday, my Mom found some old correspondence from Johan recently: Perhaps you know that I am not a big fan of annual events. I guess I never could understand the idea of marking something based on the mass of the sun (which is what determines the orbital period of the earth). My deepest mistrust is reserved for the annual celebration of events that are, in fact, not even truly rooted in fact in the first place, which might explain my reticence about Christmas, given that the date of Jesus's birth is unknown and unknowable (and of debatable significance anyway, but let's leave that out for now). If anything, I tend toward the more pagan view that events and moments of REAL significance to the passage of time should be marked, so I pay more attention to solstices and equinoxes than to anything else, but I do also on occasion give in to the annual marking craze regarding certain events of TRUE importance and accomplishment: graduations, anniversaries, etc. Of course this separates me rather substantially from the mainstream, and most people who I encounter honestly cannot fathom why, for example, I try to avoid any kind of fuss on my birthday. If I am LUCKY, my birthday passes entirely unobserved (as it ALMOST did this year), while if I am unlucky and the information is out there, I have to resort to making myself scarce for the day. When I am asked about this, I point out my objection based on the timing of the interval (which inevitably draws much chuckling and eye-rolling: who else but Johan would invoke the mass of the sun in this situation?), but I also note that even beyond that, the EVENT itself wasn't something that I had a particular part in, or memory of. I usually conclude by telling people that if they want to wish anyone a "Happy John's Birthday," it should be my MOTHER, who was a tad more involved in the affair than I was.