Day 46

What do we take a day to mean?

We take Mothers day and Fathers day to be those days upon which we take a little extra step to show our parents what they mean to us.

We take Christmas to be a day of generosity and togetherness.

We take New Years Eve to be a time of reflection upon fond memories, and New Years Day to be a new beginning; the start of a reinvigorated life and new commitment to personal successes.

We take Halloween as an opportunity to be confident; to take off masks of social convention and put on something silly, something which allows us to express ourselves more freely.

We take election day as an opportunity to contribute to the ideological formation of the world. We take the anniversary of our country's inception as a chance to be proud of our mutual governance and individual contributions to it.

We take our Birthday as a time of celebration; a joyful anniversary of that which it is to be alive.

We take the anniversary of a death (or a war) as a day of remembrance and reflection upon how our lives and livelihoods are often owed to others.

We take thanksgiving as a day to recognize the privilege and opportunity that we live alongside.

And finally, on this Valentines day, we take a moment to look at our romantic partners and tell them in one way or another just how special and appreciated they are.

If only we lived every day as though it were all of these.

Comments

Anonymous said…
true that
3:40 PM
Anonymous said…
Precisely. These 'special' days exist because we sometimes need that ubiquitous mental nudge provided by common social tradition, to help us remember how to make the most of our humanity, on a daily basis. It is a lucky thing if any of us happen to remember (not to mention *act on*) even ONE of these ideals or ways of honouring our common humanity on any given day. Holidays offer us our ideals in a piecemeal way, so we don't overload and blow a fuse, and so we can know that we did do something right for someone or some cause important to us at least one day out of the whole year. But, of course, as the lesson goes, we are told to "keep Christmas in our hearts the whole year 'round" --the same lesson goes for the rest of them.

And you have my gratitude, Jared, for writing something so clear, elegant and thoughtful this Valentines day, instead of adding to the typical jaded/cynical lament so ever popular on this day.
1:53 AM
Max said…
Thanks Jordan! I knew you'd like that one.
And it does warrant noting that the "special days" are being increasingly appropriated by consumerism, unfortunately enough. I imagine the jaded sentiment people have isn't so much against the spirit of Christmas, Valentines, etc, but against the way in which we are so strongly encouraged to define our sentiments in terms of material gift exchange.

But more holistically, we can take the best of social convention (dropping the worst) /and/ individuality in order to make these special days worthwhile.

The rest is just criticism of overconsumption, which can be applied to every day of the year :P
10:13 AM
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