This day is called June 20, 2022. I’m sure that it’s no better or worse than the billions of days before and after. I’ve decided it will be a good one for me. I don’t have total control of my tiny bubble of reality, but absent some large outside impact, I’m good to go. My first job each day is to get my mind on the right path. Today is American Eagle Day, National Vanilla Milkshake Day, New Identity Day, National Ice Cream Soda Day, Plain Yogurt Day, Ride to Work Day (motorcycle or scooter), and World Refugee Day. Now to some history to remind ourselves how often the past resembles the present. On this day in 1567 the Jews of Brazil are expelled. This is the first time I’ve found a reference to Jews being kicked out of anywhere in South America. This is the day in 1627 that Ottoman pirates began raiding Icelandic villages. They captured 400 people and sold them into slavery. On this day in 1819 the SS Savannah reached Cork Ireland after a 29 day and 11-hour voyage from Savannah GA to become the 1st steamship to cross the Atlantic. This is the day in 1893 that Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, MA. This is the day in 1911 that the NAACP was incorporated. On this day in 1943 the Detroit race riot claimed the lives of 35 people. Now we listen to the dead. Ryan Dunn died in 2011. He was a stunt man on the movie “Jackass”. Ryan said, “There is no poverty in life when you have a loving, peaceful, happy family. They are a gift which cannot be bought nor traded for gold.” Next is Bernard Baruch who was a statesman and Financier who died at the age of 94 in 1965. He said, “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind” and “You don’t have to blow out the other person’s light to let your own shine.” I will wrap up this post with a quote from Emil Cioran who was a Romanian philosopher who passed in 1995. Emil said, “by all evidence we are in the world to do nothing” and “The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live, moreover, the only reason.” Emil is yet another philosopher who confirms to me life is simply to be enjoyed. I think I will. Abide.
