Random Thoughts

I am a firm believer in HOLIDAYS.   Like, all holidays. They don’t have to be events tied to your religious belief.   They don’t have to be things celebrated in your country.   They are just holidays .   Days to celebrate, to mourn, to eat, to party – whatever tradition dictates.   HOLIDAYS. And I am perfectly fine inventing holidays.   No, not the lame ones that greeting card companies try and get people to buy into.   And no, not the “national cotton candy day” types invented just to fill space on the calendar. But significant, important holidays . One of my most sacred is Mary Day.   I celebrate it every October 20 th .   Mary Day is the anniversary of my mom, Mary Eleanor Thompson’s, death in 2002.   My mom and dad at Christmas in the basement of the house I grew up in on Borman Street  Wow – this October 20 th was the 21 st Mary Day celebration.   It is hard to believe it has been that long. ...

We all have events that change our lives, events that are earthshattering enough that they change how our internal calendars work.   You know, the events that are etched in our minds and we count years as “pre-the event” and “post-the event”.   The first major one in my internal calendar is the day my mom died.   Mary Day. October 20, 2002. 20 years ago today.   We got the news that she was dying on another day that changed my internal calendar, and the internal calendars of most Americans old enough to have been alive then – September 11, 2001. So, one year, one month, and a few days after that dreadful diagnosis, she was gone. Some days it is hard to imagine that it has been 20 years without her.   And other days it feels like an eternity since she was here. So much has happened since she died – family weddings, births, illnesses, divorces, a global pandemic, family members purchasing new homes, and deaths.   Deaths of her daught...