My coworker and friend Laurie teases me that I am “way too motivational.” She rolls her eyes at me sometimes and says, “There you go, thinking positively again.” So she will like this column as it is about a pet peeve that we share.
Nearly every day we receive emails at the paper declaring some sort of holiday. Today for instance, I received an announcement telling me it is “National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.”
Why does the chocolate chip cookie—which, according to one of the websites about this special day, makes up a quarter of all cookies baked in America today—need a special day? Who decided it warranted a day? And if it is so important, why a day and not a week or a month?
I’m not saying that all of these commemorative days, weeks and months are bad.
There are some very special days such as Memorial Day, Labor Day and Veterans Day that truly deserve national recognition.
And I can support the idea of International Nurses Day and the American Dental Association’s “Give Kids A Smile Day.” Those make sense and promote something sensible.
There are weeks that are reasonable to observe as well. Fire Prevention Week in October is practical—it’s promoted by the National Fire Prevention Association and firefighters and fire departments around the county take some extra time that week to visit elementary schools to talk to kids about fire safety and to remind people to check their smoke detectors.
Severe Weather Awareness Week in April is also probably a good idea. Emergency communication systems are tested and people are asked to review their family’s emergency evacuation plan.
Some special month designations are meaningful. April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, another great cause. At the News-Herald we “planted” pinwheels for hope in our flowerbox in honor of this month. It’s reasonable to proclaim a month to think about ways to prevent abuse of our children.
May is also Mental Health Month, another important promotion, shining a light on the importance of mental health to overall health and wellbeing.
But who decides what warrants a day, or week, or month of acknowledgement? Who decides what day is proper? Who comes up with the ridiculous holidays such as “Ice Cream for Breakfast Day” on February 1 or “Walk on Stilts Day” on July 27? Just this week, on May 14, it was “Chicken Dance Day.”
Do we really need a holiday for everything? As Laurie says, “It’s craziness. Does everything need its own special day?”
But researching National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, I learned that the chocolate chip cookie was invented by Ruth Graves Wakefield in the 1930s. Legend has it that Wakefield was making chocolate cookies and ran out of regular baker’s chocolate. So she substituted broken pieces of semi-sweet chocolate thinking that they would melt and mix into the batter. However, they did not and the chocolate chip cookie was born!
So perhaps it’s not such a silly day after all. Sorry, Laurie!
Think what a better world it
would be if we all, the whole
world, had cookies and milk
about three o’clock every
afternoon and then lay down on
our blankets for a nap.
Robert Fulghum
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