Define Holiday

It's Labor Day weekend.
The beginning of September. The unofficial end of summer. The celebration of the 40 hour work week and paid vacation time.
Time for one last family or neighborhood cookout; one last road trip; one last day of frivol.

Schools, which have been in session for half a hot month already, get a break. Kids have days off to be with their families and join in the fun.

Or do they?

In spite of the holiday, there are track meets and football games and who knows what all events. Buses and teams and roadtrips are now part of the experience. Labor Day is no holiday for parents, it seems. Life remains the same old same old hauling kids here, there, and in between. Parents have to work with schedules and timetables and agendas.
Children, freed from school for  long weekend, have to go to school,
They have to participate in school related events. (Or lose their standing and/or eligibility.)

Excuse me, schools and boards of education.
What constitutes a holiday in your eyes?
What makes a holiday weekend different for your students; what makes it a holiday?

Now, I have no objection to places that work on the holidays. At least, for the most part, they are being honest.

But I do object to the school's use of the holiday weekend where they say "Have a holiday, and we'll see you back here in three hours. And again tomorrow."

Of course, the actual holiday itself is Monday. The weekend is not the holiday.
Except, of course, for the families that have one last summer weekend planned.

That is, if their children aren't robbed of the time.

It's a TREAT!

Not a right.
or, in the language of today -- not an entitlement.

I am talking about trick-or-treating, or Beggar's Night as the older people still call it.

Communities set up times for kiddies to don costumes and take up plastic, pillowcases, or whatever and go door-to-door saying "trick or treat" and getting candy, pencils, pennies or other treats.

This year, Mother Nature stepped in with big winds and her own twist to the spirits roaming the night. (Hey, there's a reason our ancestors chose the dates they chose for these things.)

Communities and parents were instantly up in arms, as much as two days before the scheduled event.

Now, in some cases, cancelling turned out to be a wise thing. One town 'found' children in a tornado shelter after a tornado.

HOWEVER:

1) Cancelling a non-essential activity because of a weather forecast.
Are you kidding me? Even the best scientific weather predicting is around 60% accurate. Bunions and bones and migraines are a little bit better -- possibly up to 80%. But how in the world will any of us ever get anything done if we reschedule every time the weather forecast is bad. Even at its best, a weather forecast is still a "best guess."

2) "But it's for the safety of the children." Sorry. That is the primary responsibility of the parents. Whether there's weather or not (and there will be) it is up to the parents if the child goes out to participate in any community event. The established times are the community attempt to provide safe limits for the children.
Those children found, it was their parents decision to allow them out. The town said "this is when we will permit this activity" The town did not say "This is when we guarantee the safety of the children doing this activity."

3) Cancel or not cancel,  All this did was cause confusion. It also allowed avarice and encouraged greed. Children can go to trick-or-treat any number of nights, if they have that kind of parent.
The good side of this is that it allows more extended family to enjoy the fun with the little children. My grandbabies got a night with one grandparent, one with parents, and then another with another grandparent. We all enjoy the kids and their fun.
But that's not everyone's motivation, is it?

I'm sorry.I see all this fuss about trick-or-treat as an extension of the entitlements everyone is screaming, fussing, whining and fighting about.

One woman even referred to trick-or-treat as a "right" of passage for her children.
 No, it's not a right.
It's a rite, which is by definition optional.

My opinion is that it would be better to schedule a follow up if there is a poor turn-out due to weather, and then only if the community asks for it. If there are weather warnings, or even watches, AT THE TIME of the event, then clear the children off the street. If parents can't be found, take the children to a designated bad-weather shelter.

I'd like to see more enforcement of bad weather advisory stuff. Tornado warnings mean get to shelter, not hurry to McDonald's. Winter storm warnings are for getting bread and milk and kerosine, not buy new clothes and shoes.

But, this is another topic for another time.

Trick or treating is a TREAT.
Not a Right.

Please, parents, save your energy and outrage for important stuff, like the right to eat healthy and to stay healthy.

Blacker than Friday

is 'Black Thursday'
is the early Black Friday sales.

I don't know which I despise the most.
Yes, I said despise. As in disdainfully hate, loathe, and dislike. ALL.

Years and years ago, back in the last century, Black Friday sales used to be FUN! Hurtling through the dark early morning hours to go to stores never worth going to at other times. Hitting the 4 am openers, and then the 6 am early bird stores. Buying gifts that could not be afforded otherwise.

It wasn't even too bad when the "Black Friday" thing became part of the annual routine. The sales weren't as spectacular -- usually they are ordinary mark-downs of last year's leftovers -- and the fun wasn't there because too much traffic was taking its place. Everybody that wasn't working was hitting the sales.

Even the hysteria of  'limited number of items' (because they are selling last year's no-sells) was somewhat tolerable from a distance. Stupid, but tolerable. No one should be assaulted over a toy.

Now however, the whole thing has morphed into blatant money-grubbing. The stores started opening late on Thanksgiving Day, then they started being open "All Day" on Thanksgiving Day.

This year the Black Friday sales all were 'leaked' early, and have been underway for at least a week. There's still a week before Thanksgiving.
I haven't shopped any of them, and there are stores I won't shop, even when it is actually time to do so.

These stores -- Target is one of them -- are making it mandatory for their workers to come in on the holiday day. Yeah, they'll pay time-and-a-half (maybe) but that isn't the point. To many people, especially minimum wage workers, time spent with family is more important than all the money in the world. At least for that one day that is supposed to be about appreciating who and what you have.

I have no problem with the stores being open -- if the people working there want to be there. I always wished I could go to work, maybe, after the meal and the dishes and the guests went home, and the only thing on tv is football games. I'd have volunteered.

There are people to whom Thanksgiving is yet another lonely day, and they'd work or not, however it works out.

And if a store doesn't have the staff to work that day -- that special, family holiday -- then they shouldn't open, or should perhaps only have some areas open (no coffee shop, no fresh-sliced deli, etc.) They should respect the employees who want to respect their families -- not drag them out and demand they deal kindly and patiently with rude and demanding people.

Yes, I categorize the precious customers that way, because for the most part it is going to be the greedy people out grabbing goodies. The "real" people will be at home with their families, especially during the early part of the day.

And if you do go out, after your family's festivities, please remember to thank those who serve you in any capacity. A heck of a lot of them are there because they have to be, not because they want to be, and that's just not fair.

Grandparent's Day: Another Hallmark Holiday

Many people think of today, Grandparents Day, as a Hallmark Holiday.

So what if it is? If it's not your cup of tea , don't celebrate it. When you see commercials or reminders, make sure not to think of your grandparents. Even if you remember only unkindness or downright cruelty, remember that every time you remember them, you are honoring this made-up holiday that you don't respect.

Every day, these days, seems to have been set aside by some group or government to commemorate Something-or-other. For millions of people, any day is a special commemoration for the individual because it's their birthday.

Birthdays are (locally) about presents and cakes and gimmes. Breast Cancer Awareness and similar 'events' often call for fundraising in many different ways, although the focus and the honorees may be survivors or contenders or a thousand other _________--ers.

There is nothing wrong with this. Why not?

 So, some holidays -- these so-called Hallmark Holidays -- encourage people to buy cards (preferably Hallmark, I suppose) and flowers. Some of these holidays are newer, like Grandparents Day and Sweetest Day. Others have been around for centuries, like Valentine's Day.

What difference does it make?

Many of you complain about the "crass consumerism" of these special days.

 If you're crass that's your fault.
If you're a consumer, that's your choice.

lighting the darktime

For centuries, Christmas lights and candles in the windows and blazing fires have spread the light in the darkest time of winter. That solstice, every year, is the time of briefest light, and mankind has been fighting back from the beginning.
After the season -- whichever of them you celebrate, daylight begins creeping back into this old world. Minute by minute, day by day -- or maybe it's minute by day -- the time of not-dark increases. Our joyous blazing celebrations have brought back light, even if we don't think of it that way.

Recent years, the wooing of the light starts earlier and lasts longer. We begin, now, with ghost lights in October. Orange and white, only the orange has a tendency to look a lirrle red. We leave the spakling clear lights on through November, and then comes the extravaganza of Yuletide.
Carnival, which culminates in Mardi Gras, begins at Epiphany -- the twelfth day of Christmas.
But, between then and now, there are more secular holidays, made for fun and cheer.
Red lights and reshaped wreaths on doors celebrate Valentine's Day, the time of year when the sap rises in our spirits as well as in our yards. Green lights replace the red, and the wreaths are joined together in threes, to celebrate St Patrick and the return of the Green to the northern hemisphere.

And the twinkling lights give way to pastel ornaments and blushing bouquets, awaiting the full touch of sun as they burst into bloom.

From ghost lights to green lights, we keep away the darkness.
Or at least we try.

New year, new day, new blah blah

The truth is, every day is a new year from 365 days ago (or 366, next year.) Every new day is an opportunity for a new life. And most days, this new start is wasted.

It's not really anyone's fault. Try as we might to start a new life, a new attitude, the old life hangs on. We are tangled up with our pasts, and they hold and are unwilling to let go.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are things in our pasts we'd like to hold onto. Maybe even go back to. So in a way, it's only fair that even though we can't hold therm, they can, and do, hold us.

I hope this year will be better, for all of us. Too many people I know have had bad times this last year.
Most of them have had good friends  to help them get through.
If they had no past, they would not have had those friends.

So, as we vow our new beginnings, it's not enough to turn our backs to our past. We need to let our pasts 'have our back'.

Tomorrow started yesterday.