It’s become August 7, 2022. While I try to not take things for granted, I do. I wake up in a beautiful home with a bathroom and walk in shower, make coffee in a kitchen filled with appliances, sit down in front of a computer that links me to the far corners of the world and I can watch people long dead perform in my living room. I can also remember living in a house without electricity or plumbing and attending a 1 room school. And now I live like this. Wow. Today is Beach Party Day, Friendship Day, International Forgiveness Day, National Doll Day, National Kids Day, National Lighthouse Day, Psychic Day, Purple Heart Day, Sister’s Day, and Raspberries n’ Cream Day. Now some history. On this day in 1428 the first organized witch trail began in Valais Switzerland. On this day in 1606 the first performance of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” is thought to have been performed. This is the day in 1760 that Fort Loudon TN surrendered to the Cherokee. On this day in 1782 President George Washington the Purple Heart which was originally named the Badge of Military Merit. In 1882 on this day the Hatifields of West Virginia and the McCoys of east Kentucky fought each other with over 100 either wounded or dead. On this day in 1930 a mob of 2,000 lynch two young black men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, in Marion, Indiana. On this day in 1957 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Not a great bill but a start in addressing racism in America. On this day in 1941 the Bengali poet, writer, composer, philosopher, and India’s first Nobel Prize winner, Rabindranath Thakur died at the age of 80. He said, “It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.” “My eyes have seen much, but they are not weary. My ears have heard much, but they thirst for more.” “Wrong is wrong only when you are at liberty to choose.” “Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.” Abide.
