Sharing

We learn from a young age to share.  We share our toys and the playground.  We share our names and our cars.  We share our bedrooms and our apartments.  We even share our birthdays.

By no means do I have a rare or unusual name, but it always seemed that I was the only Linda in the class or the only Linda at work.  On rare occasions I encountered another Linda, but there were never a ton of us.  As a teacher, I sometimes have had four kids with the same name in one class.  This means they become Matt D. or Matt P. or Matt B.  I like my name well enough, and I don’t mind sharing it, but it sure is nice that it is not super common.

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Sometimes we have to share transportation.  It may be that we share a car with a sibling, spouse, or child.  My younger son and I shared a car for a year or two when he was in high school.  The time of day we each needed it most did not overlap much.  Being flexible and considerate were important for making this arrangement work.  In the end, lots of money was saved.  Siblings often have to share a car and a schedule has to be worked out.  Cooperation and compromise are key factors in successful sharing.

What about space?  I shared a bedroom with my sister growing up.  It never dawned on me to complain because I loved my sister and I loved our bedroom.  Besides, it could not be any other way in a 3-bedroom house with 4 kids.  Roommates share dorm rooms and apartments all the time.  Now this is a tough one.  Two strangers are thrown together in the hopes that they live in harmony or at least give it the old college try.  It would be interesting to know what percentage of such arrangements is viewed as successful.  Roommates can be flaky and selfish and not good at sharing.   Then again, other roommates might go on to be life-long friends.

Birthdays are shared all the time too.  Let’s face it; there are only 366 days in the year, so there are lots of people who we all have to share our birthday with.  My husband actually has a Leap Year birthday, so I guess he shares his birthday with less people.  It used to be that I only knew of celebrities who shared my birthday because you could look that up or hear it on the news.  But thanks to Facebook and other ways of connecting and sharing information such as birthdays, I now know four other people who share my birthday.  So this blog is dedicated to them and to anyone reading this who has a February 3^rd birthday.  I would like to wish them a very happy birthday today as we share our special day and as I celebrate my double nickel birthday.

Here I am in the center wearing a tiarra, celebrating what looks like my 7th or 8th birthday.