The 60th Birthday of Father

May.15th,2003

Yesterday, my mother called me and told me today is my father's 60th birthday.

From the day that I knew the conception of birthday as a little child, I have tried to ask my father which day is his birthday more than once. However, perhaps different generations have different manners of expression. Even though once I grabbed his ID card, he still insisted that the date on the ID card is not a date in Gregorian calendar, but an approximate date in lunar calendar. Anyway, he showed to me that he didn't want to tell me his birthday.

I could remember what happened last year. One day, I bought a new mobile phone as a gift for him, which was the most expensive good that I had purchased as far. On the way home, feeling the packing container of the gift, I was imagining how delighted my father would be and the happiness as a father receiving a gift from his son. Furthermore, in my opinion, this mobile phone was the exact one that my father needed because the old one he was using was of outdated style and shabbiness. Sometimes, the signal of his old phone was so weak that he cannot hear the voice from the opponent side even though dialing several times. But it may be a bit regrettable that the situation that he is shouting to a brick and wandering to find a space for better signal would never be taken place.

However, beyond my imagination, when I came back home, he asked me with anger to return the phone as soon as he knew the price. My good feelings were dampened . So I left the gift with him and went away, and saying, 'It's up to you'. Although afterwards, I found him playing with the new mobile phone like a child.

So much so my father seldom expresses his own feeling and seldom accepts favors or cares from others. But for myself, on the contrary, I am a person who can express his rich feeling frankly and lives his life with a sensitive mind. However, I have no idea how to cope with my father. Maybe only my mother has some ways.

On the 60th birthday of my father, holding the telephone, I didn't know how to express my wishes. Except a simple sentence of 'happy birthday', the other words seemed irrelevant to the birthday. I am in a city far away from Guangzhou now, no birthday gift for him, but I know that I will buy gifts for my father next time, though he may ask me to return it again. No matter whether his birthday is May 14th or not, I don't care. Everyday could be my father's birthday.

60 years of age means retirement, with more furrows and grey hairs. I don't know what retirement means for a person, because it is too far and abstruse for me. I only remember some episodes in my life. Before my birth, on a cold night in Beijing, father stood in a line to buy chicken for my mother. My sister told me the above story and I can imagine what a chilly night it was. And when I was still a little child, living in a cramped room, father had to sleep on the floor and gave the big bed to us. In addition, the Nintendo TV game and transformer toys, which were both the dreams of boys at that time, after my noisy crying thirst for them again and again, appeared on my desk and belonged to me. The last but not the least, I know that deeply father is the original source of my current life. It is him that moved from a small city to a big city, with a straw mat, and made great efforts to study and work with a frugal life style, and then supported our family, and also created my presence. I understand strongly what it means. Thank you, my dad and mom.

Happy Birthday!