If It’s Dark Enough, You Can See the Stars
I had never thought about how August is the only month without a major holiday in the United States until I was reading a John Updike novel in which a character mentioned it. No one had ever shone a light on it for me before. One of those deals where you look at it and think “Oh, yeah, right, there isn’t.”
It could have been ten years ago, for all I know, maybe twenty, but it was new info at the time, like a “classic” you’ve never read or watching Casablanca for the first time or listening to Kind of Blue. And then you google it to find out more and it seems like the whole world has always known about this and has played with it and you are really late to the party. The internet can make you feel like a dunce.
Of course, in reality, the whole world does not think (or even care) about how August is the only month without a holiday and it is still interesting and it’s OK to be late to the party, because it’s brand new info to you and a brand new day.
We’re poised today between Independence Day (thirty days since) and Labor Day (thirty five days until) and there’s no national celebration in sight. There are some lesser ones, of course, which you can look up, like National S’Mores Day; Left-Handers Day; Bad Poetry Day; More Herbs, Less Salt Day; and Just Because Day. There’s even a Tooth-Fairy Day, which The Farmers’ Almanac suggests you celebrate in spirit unless you have a loose tooth.
I like the idea of celebrating in spirit. Maybe it is just right that we have one month when we’re on our own and need to create a ritual. Of course, since “An Inquiry Into A Gratitude-Inspired Life” is the aperture through which this blog views everything, one could start there. There are one hundred fifteen days until Thanksgiving, the mother of all gratitude holidays, but surely there are other smaller ways to participate.
It seems to me that an unexpected part of gratitude is that we don’t get to cherry-pick, we don’t get to just depend on emotions and how it feels. Some things we feel really grateful for and it’s easy to talk about them–the sunrise, a hot shower, food, companionship, surprise–the list is endless.
However, as has come up so often in this blog, gratitude seems to be more like an intention than a feeling, though feelings are all included inside of this big tent. It sure seems like a major part of living a gratitude-inspired life is saying yes yes yes, as Joseph Campbell said, to all of it. For example, I don’t get to not ask what gifts there might be from this pandemic. I don’t get to not look for something to be grateful for in my hearing loss. Does that mean I’m always glad about all these things that happened? I don’t think so. That would be serious life denial.
I don’t know how far to push this, but it sure seems like that’s what shows up over and over and over again. It’s an embrace of all of life, every bit of it, and being intentionally grateful for it, however you feel. The overriding idea is to embrace obstacles, not wish for their removal, because they are the way, the path. Wishing for another is a fool’s errand.
These August days may feel very dark, but we can still take Ralph Waldo Emerson’s advice. “When it is dark enough you can see the stars.”
