Just Another Day
The previously mentioned happier final post of 2009 is up
I meant to post this on Christmas Day. Not because it contains any particularly important theological insight or spiritual revelation, but because it fits with those sorts of occasions. I failed to post it on Christmas because I very much needed to take a day away from work, and apparently the only way to accomplish that is to completely avoid computers.
(iPhones are fair game, but are tougher for these sorts of entries.)
There are folks who would posit that Christmas and New Year's are just another day. Strictly speaking, they're right. Any Winter Solstice holiday you or others may celebrate are just another revolution of the planet as it spins around our sun. The sun rises and sets on that day just as any other. It's a sentiment that I fully understand, and in fact thought about as "Just Another Day" played over my car speaker as I drove down to visit friends and second-family members (many of whom are co-workers) for the holiday week.
However, that sentiment lasted only for a fleeting moment before it was replaced by the larger truth, as I understand it. This truth is that the days which we collectively deem as special or significant do have meaning, and that is the importance we imbue them with. For most of the free world, any random day is just that. While it may be someone's anniversary or birthday it is, to the rest of us, simply another day. Then there are those days which have gathered a collective standing: so many people impart significance upon a given day or days that they become special across broader populations. Businesses close as people declare a time that is to be set apart for whatever celebration or reflection is agreed upon. Traditions sprout and grow around these days, clinging to the occasion through the passage of time when they are, in turn, passed along to a new generation.
These days matter because we say they do. That's what I wanted to share with all of you: a reminder that the significance and meaning -- indeed the power -- behind our "sacred" days exists solely because it comes from us. There's no external force that declares them special. It's us.
We are our own power.
For that reason, it's not just another day. Chanukah mattters. Christmas matters. New Year's Eve/Day matters. They mean something because we hold them dear and collectively agree that they represent something.
With that in mind, I'll take this opportunity to wish you and yours a happy and prosperous New Year.
I meant to post this on Christmas Day. Not because it contains any particularly important theological insight or spiritual revelation, but because it fits with those sorts of occasions. I failed to post it on Christmas because I very much needed to take a day away from work, and apparently the only way to accomplish that is to completely avoid computers.
(iPhones are fair game, but are tougher for these sorts of entries.)
There are folks who would posit that Christmas and New Year's are just another day. Strictly speaking, they're right. Any Winter Solstice holiday you or others may celebrate are just another revolution of the planet as it spins around our sun. The sun rises and sets on that day just as any other. It's a sentiment that I fully understand, and in fact thought about as "Just Another Day" played over my car speaker as I drove down to visit friends and second-family members (many of whom are co-workers) for the holiday week.
However, that sentiment lasted only for a fleeting moment before it was replaced by the larger truth, as I understand it. This truth is that the days which we collectively deem as special or significant do have meaning, and that is the importance we imbue them with. For most of the free world, any random day is just that. While it may be someone's anniversary or birthday it is, to the rest of us, simply another day. Then there are those days which have gathered a collective standing: so many people impart significance upon a given day or days that they become special across broader populations. Businesses close as people declare a time that is to be set apart for whatever celebration or reflection is agreed upon. Traditions sprout and grow around these days, clinging to the occasion through the passage of time when they are, in turn, passed along to a new generation.
These days matter because we say they do. That's what I wanted to share with all of you: a reminder that the significance and meaning -- indeed the power -- behind our "sacred" days exists solely because it comes from us. There's no external force that declares them special. It's us.
We are our own power.
For that reason, it's not just another day. Chanukah mattters. Christmas matters. New Year's Eve/Day matters. They mean something because we hold them dear and collectively agree that they represent something.
With that in mind, I'll take this opportunity to wish you and yours a happy and prosperous New Year.