March 11, 2024. Another day to enjoy life is here. Another day in which I will attempt to shut out the chaos of the world and sequester myself in my small bubble of reality. I’ll do my best to limit my worries and concerns to problems within my span of control. Worrying about something I can’t fix is a waste of my valuable and limited time. Today is Debunking Day, 8-Hour Day (in Tasmania), Fill Our Staplers Day, Johnny Appleseed Day, Key Deer Awareness Day, National Napping Day, National Worship of Tools Day, Oatmeal Nut Waffles Day, and World Plumbing Day. It’s also National Bubble Gum Week. Now a few historical footnotes before we receive the sage advice of a dead person. On this day in 1669 Mt. Etna in Sicily erupted killing 15,000. In 1779 on this day the US Army Corps of Engineers was established. On this day in 1855 the leader of the bowery Boys gang “Bill the Butcher” was buried in Brookland with a funeral procession of 155 carriages and 6,000 mourners. On this day in 1941 FDR signed the Lend-Lease Bill which allowed the US to provide material support to the British war effort in return for the use of land in England for future American military bases. On this day in 1857 Charles Van Doren finally loses on the TV game show “Twenty-One” after winning $129,000. It was later revealed that the game was fixed. In 1971 on this day Jim Morrison left the US for Paris to avoid a Miami jail sentence. He never returned to the US. On this day in 1997 Paul McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. Today’s dead person is the German philosopher Martin Heidegger who died in 1976. Martin observed “How one encounters reality is a choice.” “We should never allow our fears or the expectations of others to set the frontiers of our destiny.” “Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.” You have to think about that one. Of all the men I could have become, I became me. Abide.
