It’s now the 6th day of August 2021. As I woke up this morning, my first thoughts were about my normal level of happiness. Are each of us predisposed to be either happy or grumpy or is it a learned behavior? It’s the nature vs. nurture question. Jimmy Buffett’s response would be “I don’t know, and I don’t care” (Ignorance or Apathy). I’m happy and how I get here every day doesn’t really matter. Today is Balloons to Heaven Day, Farm Workers Appreciation Day, National Gossip Day, National Fresh Breath Day, Hiroshima Day, National Root Beer Float Day and National Beer Day. I do have found memories of icecold San Miguel beer as a hangover cure in in Subic Bay. On this day in 1861 US Congress passed the 1st Confiscation Act which authorized Union forces seizure of rebel property and freed all slaves who fought with or worked for the Confederate military services. In 1890 on this day at Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler became the 1st person to be executed by electric chair. On this day in 1914 Denis Patrick Dowd Jr. enlisted in the French Foreign Legion and becomes the first American to fight in World War I. This is the day in 1945 that an atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. Today is the birthday (1911) of Lucille Ball who said, “I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.” I like to say, may your glad I dids be many and your wish I hads be few. I’ll end this post with a powerful quote by the German philosopher and sociologist Theodor W. Adorno. He said, “People have so manipulated the concept of freedom that it finally boils down to the right of the stronger and richer to take from the weaker and poorer whatever they still have.” Something to think about. Now, I’m off to experience all that this day brings. Abide.
