It's November 19th - Happy "Appreciate Your Neighbor" Day

Most times, I don't think twice about what day/date is on my calendar. For starters, I don't have a paper calendar on my wall - just an electronic one that I glance at about once a week. Secondarily, I have all the important dates (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) pretty much memorized and November is light on those (just 2 birthdays of note) so I'm not too concerned about the date.

But holidays are different. Holidays are dictated by the calendar (and backed up by the merchants) so one can't miss a holiday. Oh sure - Arbor day maybe, but none of the big holidays - where there's a chance for a store to make a buck, I mean. However, there are four holidays that are dictated by the calendar that kinda ... bother me.

One occurs in February and is all about Love (yes, capital "L"). Another happens in November and is all about Gratitude (uh huh - capital "G"). And then we have May and June to show our appreciation for the two humans who brought us into this world. Apparently a portion of the population feels the need to identify a specific date to express themselves. And that's not to say that they don't express themselves on other dates, too but ... flowers, cards, big meals, special evenings out, cleaning out the garage, brunch ... "yep, the calendar says this is the day so here - have some candy and flowers, Mom."

It's perhaps more than a little naive of me to make this suggestion but I'm willing to be more than a little naive. What if one purchased a bunch of Thanksgiving-themed cards this week and sent them to their friends, families, neighbors in ... March or July? What if, when February rolls around, one stocked up on Valentine's Day cards and gave them to their loved one throughout the year? "Hey Sweetheart - I really appreciated you raking the leaves in the yard while I watched the first football game of the year, and I wrote how I feel about you in this card. I hope you'll be my Valentine."

For what it's worth, I found some a Mother's Day card a few years ago that just cracked me up. I purchased 8 of them - 8 of the same exact card - and I've given them to my Mom at random times. I'm gonna go slap a stamp on another one and send it off ... just because I'm thinking of her.

Because ... we shouldn't need a calendar to tell us when to think of the important people in our lives, or when to be thankful for them, either.