It’s finally here. The earth has been waiting 4.543 billion years for September 17, 2021. As a reminder, a billion is one thousand million. That looks like a long time when you have a life span of 7 or 8 decades. Since we’ve been waiting so long for this day to arrive, I’m not going to waste it. I can celebrate National Apple Dumpling Day, National Monte Cristo Day, National Professional House Cleaners Day, National Shuffleboard Day, Constitution Day or International Grenache Day. Time to look at what happened on this day. In 1394, all Jews were expelled from France by order of the King In 1787 the US Constitution was signed by delegates at the Philadelphia Convention. In 1778 the first treaty between the United States and an Indian tribe (Delaware). On this day in 1862 the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in the American Civil War ended with 22,000 dead, wounded, or missing in the first battle on Union soil. This is the day in 1900 that coal miners went out on strike for better wages. This was a very big deal at the time because winter was on the way and there was an election in early November. The miners won and the strike ended on Oct. 29th. In 1934 on this day in 1883 that the poet William Carlos Williams was born. He died in 1963 at the age of 79. He won a Pulitzer Prize, won a National Book Award and was Poet Laureate for the United States. He said, “One thing I am convinced more and more is true and that is this: The only way to be truly happy is to make other happy. When you realize that and take advantage of the fact, everything is made perfect”. This is also the day in 1992 that the social critic and philosopher Karl Popper died at the age of 92. I’ll end one of his observations: “Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite”. Karl was surely influenced by Socrates who said, “The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing”. The inverse of his quote is that the person who thinks they know everything is a fool. Now it’s time for me to continue my journey through this once in my lifetime day. Abide.
