Two days ago, on July 3, as I was leaving the grocery store with watermelon and all the other July 4th food and beverage, I looked over to the bank and said to myself, “tomorrow is a holiday so you need to go get money before they close.” Of course, my age is apparent in that statement because it confirms that I grew up in a time without ATMs. The day before a holiday was marked with a crush of crowds at the supermarket, the bank, and the gas station. This was because all of them would be closed on the holiday.

I reminded myself that I have an ATM card and if I needed money on the 4th I could simply go to the bank and get some. In fact, I found myself at Staples at 9:30AM on the 4th buying office supplies with a credit card – no cash needed.

So, what’s my point. Well, holidays are not what they used to be. I fear they have lost something and with that I think we lose a bit of ourselves as a nation and as individuals. In my youth holidays were truly special. Check out the etymology of the word from wikipedia.

Holiday
Holiday is a contraction of holy and day, holidays originally represented special religious days. This word has evolved in general usage to mean any special day of rest (as opposed to regular days of rest such as the weekend).

OK, so we see now that the word has evolved from a special religious day to a special day of rest. Big question though, how much resting are we doing on these “so called” special days of rest when the majority of retailers are open and those of us in the corporate world find time to send a few emails (or go to Staples) during the day. In fact, what, aside from a cookout and some red, white and blue decorations, was different about July 4 as compared to June 29th (the previous Sunday)? Not much.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the ATM and I like convenience but it is important, too, that we remember why we have our holidays and we remember to actually celebrate them and make them special. The risk is that every day becomes essentially the same. That sameness will make us immune to what is special about us. And when we lose, or forget, what is special about us as a nation or as individuals we will cease to exist in any definable or worth defending form. And then the only thing left is history because there is no future.

What do you think?

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 1:47 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.