We are now in the time/space of August 18th, 2021. As I often remind you, what kind of a day this will be for you is mostly up to you. If you think this will be a good day or think it will be a bad day, you are probably right. You can choose to pursue happiness or grievance. Since we’re on Facebook, did you know that if someone posts something that pisses you off, if you right click on those three little dots on the right-hand side of their post at the top and “snooze” them for 30 days? That’s my happiness tip of the day. After all, today is Helium Discovery Day, National Bad Poetry Day, National Fajita Day, Pinot Noir Day, National Ice Cream Pie Day and Serendipity Day. In case you don’t know, “Serendipity” is the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. I’ll go with fajitas with a glass of wine and ice cream pie for dessert. Now to the history part of this post. On this day in 1612 a witchcraft trial began in Lancaster, England. 10 people were accused based on the testimony of a 9 year old boy. 9 were found guilty and hanged. On this day in 1909 the Mayor of Tokyo presented Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees which President Taft decided to plant near the Potomac River. In 1920 on this day Harry T. Burn, who was the youngest member of the Tennessee General Assembly (22 years old) cast the deciding vote in to ratify the 19th Amendment to the constitution allowing women’s suffrage. In his pocket was a letter from his mother, Febb Burn, urging him to “be a good boy” and vote for the amendment. He took her advice. I’ll end this post with a few quotes from Honoré de Balzac who was a French novelist and playwright who died in 1850. He said, ” How natural it is to destroy what we cannot possess, to deny what we do not understand, and to insult what we envy!” And “It is easy to sit up and take notice, What is difficult is getting up and taking action.” Both seem true. Enough for today. Abide.
