This day is January 18, 2024. Just another day? Only you can decide that. If you’re in a rut, If you embrace the routine, If your mind is in the past, it’s just another day. Not for me. I have a toolbox filled with knowledge for living in the moment, noticing the small stuff and being grateful. Cape Diem! Today we can celebrate Get to Know Your Customer Day, Maintenance Day, National Gourmet Coffee Day, Peking duck Day, Thesaurus Day, and one of my vary favorites, Winnie the Pooh Day. More from Winnie later. Onto the history portion of this post: Pay attention to this first one. On this day in 532 Emperor Justinian put down the Nika uprising. In Rome at this time there were 4 organized factions or organizations: Blues, Greens, Reds and Whites. They supported their ‘teams’ at sporting events, particularly chariot races. They were also involved in politics and social issues. Some of the Greens and Blues were arrested after a race for killing each other and a major riot took place. Justinian ordered the imperial troops to put the riot down and when the dust cleared, 30,000 romans were dead. This is the day in 1644 that perplexed Pilgrims in Boston reported America’s 1st UFO sighting. This is the day in 1943 that the siege of Leningrad was broken when the Soviets opened a narrow land corridor through the Nazi lines. Finally, on this sad day in 1973 John Cleese appeared in his final episode of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”. Since it is Winnie the Pooh Day and I consider the little bear to be one of my favorite stoic philosophers, I’ll use his quotes to end today’s post. “A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.” “You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” “Rivers know this: There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” “It isn’t much good having anything exciting, if you can’t share it with somebody.” “I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I have been.” “How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” That’s a good one to stop with. Abide.
