This day’s name is April 7, 2022. Another gain of sand falls to the bottom of my hourglass. I don’t know how much sand remains in the top. I hope another 9,000 grains or so. The length of life isn’t as important as the quality of days lived. I’m doing my best to make sure each one well lived. April 7th is National Beer Day. I don’t need to go further to find a celebratory event but it’s also National Beaver Day, National Coffee Cake Day, Public Television Day, National No Housework Day, National Making the First Move Day and number two pick: National Burrito Day. Now the historical footnotes of 04/0. On this day 451 Attilla the Hun plundered Metz in France. On this day in 1712 there was a slave revolt in New York which killed 6 white men. 21 African Americans were executed. In 1827 on this day, English chemist John Walker invented wooden matches. 1959 Oklahoma ends prohibition after 51 years. No doubt a sad day for Kansas bootleggers. Finally, this was the day in 1968, riots continued in over 100 US cities following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Now to the cemetery. Some days I struggle to find dead people to quote. Not today. May famous quotable people died on April 7th which means it’s a good day for quotes. The first come from Ernest Holmes who was a spiritual movement writer who stopped living in 1960. Ernest said, “Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it” and “Nothing is too good to be true.” P.T. Barnum also died on this date in 1891 and said, “The noblest are if that of making others happy.” He also said, “To me there is no picture so beautiful as smiling, bright-eyed, happy children; no music so sweet as their clear and ringing laughter.” I’ll end with a lyric by John Prine who passed in 2020 and sang, “Bewildered, bewildered, you have no complaint. You are what you are, and you ain’t what you ain’t.” Abide.
