Opus 2025-598: `What Makes a Day Special?

We are in that time of year which we call the holiday season.  For some it starts with Halloween.  For those of us who don’t celebrate Halloween and it starts with Thanksgiving . At the center is Christmas Day, preceded by Christmas Eve.  Then we have the celebrations of New Year’s.  These are definitely special days.  They are shared by all of us.  They’re part of our cultural atmosphere.

We also have days that may be special to us as individuals, or as a nuclear family.  And this you would have birthdays, anniversaries, other events that are unique to us as a family that other people would not be particularly aware of.

What makes them special?

Sometimes it is the memory on the foundational events that stimulate those memories.  When we celebrate the Fourth of July, we look back to that moment when a document was produced, declaring the beginning of the United States of America.  We recently celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary.  That looked back to the day in which a union was established as a covenant before God and we celebrate all of the wonderful things that have happened since that day.

Sometimes a special day is in the future, and it holds the promise of something that’s going to change our lives or the lives of others.  Getting a wedding invitation and writing the date down on your calendar make that a special day.  When I was a child, I remember the prospect of going to a place like Six Flags.  I could hardly sleep the night before.  When I was in the army, the date I was going to be discharged would dangle in front of my eyes constantly.  Toward the end, we might walk around the camps in Vietnam and see guys and shiny new uniforms and we would walk by them and yell, “short”.

I also find that I mark the passing of time by events that are regular and expected.  I have three days a week where I am involved in different church activities.  I have a zoom call one day a week.  I have a day which is the day I usually go out to dinner with my son.  I have a day where I do laundry.  There is a day when the ads come out for next week special at the grocery store.

There are many things that can make a day special some are ridiculous and some are sublime. I hope that today is one of the latter.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

homo unius libri