Global “whatever” day

Those who are really close to me, and I call friends, know only too well that I celebrate my birthday according to… mood. Let’s just say that I consider this as my prime birthday present to myself, to do as I please, on this particular day, having none to tell me how I should spend it, feel, or think…
It is quite refreshing to know that I might prepare a big table with just about everything, and eat, dance, laugh, talk, scream and do what one does when among loved ones on a celebration. As it is refreshing to know that I might decide to do the opposite of this, by “killing” my cell phone and let the answering machine do overtime, while I simply turn in early to bed… Between those two options, even those who at the beginning found my behavior “odd” now enjoy themselves behind the anticipation of what surprise my upcoming birthday will bring. “…what will he pull this year? Jump out from a cake or disappear for a trip?...”
From time to time some try to surprise me, but this does not go well for them, for obvious reasons…
I admit there was an exception last year, when a student of mine (perhaps I train them… too well) along with some friends, worked together for weeks, literally, in order to… nail me. And when I fell for it, they just could not believe, that I was not on them right from the start… They were so anxious into not being blown, it looked as I was the only one to enjoy the joke played on me in the end! And why not, I was the birthday boy, wasn’t I?

A man’s birth is not something he determines himself, and if you come to think about it, our precious birthday is something that we remember nothing of… but still we do celebrate it.
Maybe that is one more reason for me, to enjoy even better my “birthday” in the Aikido Art and to celebrate each year my very first lesson. In the contrary to my natural birth, I remember this one only too well… the feelings, the impression it had on me, and the thoughts that accompanied it. As years summed up I realized with each… rotation that this was the decisive day that took my life into the direction I wanted to… No wonder that it takes first place in my own personal calendar. But still so, with the exception of lighting a candle to… Hachiman, I do not celebrate this day with others, because there is simply no point in doing so.
Does this make it less important?

One day free of dedications
The global day of this, the global day of that… Give me a break. To be more specific, give me a day off from dedications… I only ask for one!
  
If we put our days in line, we will add 365 of them (plus a little something) to a year’s calendar. They look plenty, but they aren’t. There are so many days dedicated to something, that we are in danger of… running out of days.
In the beginning of this there was religion, any religion, well… all religions. They all made sure to fill up the calendar tightly with… close relatives, representatives, prophets, martyrs and saints… of the one who holds all patents.
But from the beginning of religions there always were, are and will be, a considerable number of people suffering from… doubt. These people never had a single day that would be theirs, and now that I think about it, they have no saint to guard them either (well, maybe with the exception of The Saint also known as… Simon Templar!).
And just about, when religions were on the path of conquering all days “global dedication days” came along and cleaned up the rest. And their representations to celebrate are awful, to say the least. At least religions have genuine classic personalities in their repertoire, like Kali-Ma or Santa Claus!

Please enhance your attention for the next line.
Global “whatever” days are a “product” that is fed by the media worldwide… and is supported from all those who make a profitable business out of it (see advertisement).
If one pays attention to what is said, on a global “whatever day”, he will feel that a lot of effort is being made (I wonder why?) in explaining why these days are a necessity. And it usually sums up in the following two excuses…

1. To make people aware of the issue that is advert… celebrated I mean.
2. To make sure that this day will work as a reminder.

Both objectives fail their task, and it is obvious why…
In the first case (of becoming aware of a situation that we need to be aware of) I think that the last time I checked, schools were still running…
Becoming aware of anything should remain at the places where teaching, learning and books, are in business. Add to that, if you like, the rest of the countless educational institutions, which exist for this purpose.
“Awareness” as given on a global “whatever day” is highly commercialized and has become pure advertisement time, for journalists and “experts” to talk about all day, rather than act on the given issue!

In the second case, if you have every day one reminder (at least one for each religion and one for a global “whatever” day) in the end you won’t remember anything… Or even worse, you become indifferent hearing the same spoken stuff over and over again, year in year out, blah… blah… blah.

Take AIDS for example…
This disease was not always around. It knocked mankind’s door in the 80s and, as scientists say, there is a good possibility in driving it to extinction…
But why dedicate a day to a… disease in the first place?!
If you ask (have you?) a person who has the disease, you will see that he/she does not give a cent if the rest of us “celebrate” become “aware” or “remember” his/her burden… He just wants to get rid of it, get back to normal, never talk or think about it again.
And what if we do actually win AIDS one day? What do we do with AIDS day? Replace it with a brand new one? Stick to it a new sign and color?

Take “environment day” for instance. Yes, it figures! We become aware of it, we remember it, and we hold our breath to pollution until next year same day…
The environment is something that we are in it, our entire lives. How can we have “a day” for it? Is being naïve our second nature?!

Do I have to put down 365.4 examples on a global whatever day in order to make my point? Well I hope not…

But I know what will happen in the end… that will be the end of me…
They will put up on the menu the “Global Dedication-less Day”.
They will frame it, name it, advertise it, sell it, talk it to death, and freeze it on a spot of the calendar with no place for it to go. Some free day!

Another of my birthdays is around the corner… Did someone say I was odd in how I celebrate it?

November 30, 2008