It is the 27th day of July in the year 2021. Today the friends and family of Will Stone will say goodbye. He was my friend and I miss him. Days like this serve as a reminder that everything has a beginning, a middle and an end. From the roller coaster ride at the amusement park to every star in the universe, the same rule applies. I seldom quote the Bible but I will now: Ecclesiastes 2: Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Good advice and appropriate on National Scotch Day. If you don’t like Scotch you do have other options: Bagpipe Appreciation Day, National Chicken Finger Day, National Crème Brûlée Day, Walk on Stilts Day and Take Your Pants For A Walk Day. Now let us see what happened on the 27th day of July: On this day in 1377 the first example of a quarantine in what is now Dubroknik, Croatia when the city council passed a law saying newcomers from plague areas must go into isolation for 30 days. This is the day in 1789 that the US Congress established the Department of Foreign Affairs which is now referred to as the State Department. On this day in 1953, North Korea and the United Nations signed the armistice to stop fighting and divide Korea at the 38th parallel. And on this day in 1962 Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed in Albany, Georgia. Today is the day that Gertrude Stein stopped living. Gertrude was a novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. She said, “Every day is a renewal, every morning the daily miracle. This joy you feel is life.” She also said, “There ain’t no answer. There ain’t gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That’s the answer.” She doesn’t say what the question was. Enough for this day. I hope your day is a good one. Abide.
