When I was a kid, I loved Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. I read it daily and collected nearly every paperback volume of the cartoon, so I could see what I’d missed since the comic strip’s inception in 1950.
Certain things stuck: quotes like “happiness is a warm puppy” became actual book titles, making them easy to remember. But another stayed in my head for reasons I still can’t fathom.
In a 1965 strip, Linus tells Lucy, “If you go up to an adult, and say, ‘How come we have a Mother’s Day and a Father’s Day, but we don’t have a Children’s Day?’ that adult will always answer, ‘Every day is Children’s Day!’”
The last part—every day is Children’s Day—has stuck with me for probably 50 years. And I don’t even have kids.
Days and Months
Thanksgiving, of course, is a day of giving thanks, and some of my peers also refer to it as Gratitude Day. Matter of fact, some of them even treat all of November as Gratitude Month.
Looking back at my past few blog posts, I haven’t exactly been a fountain of positivity lately. Topics like tech dystopia, annoying words and phrases, and writers’ problems aren’t what anyone would call uplifting. Relatable, maybe, but uplifting? Nah.
Thinking about what a few of my peers say about gratitude makes me wonder: do we need more than one Gratitude Day? Or an entire month?
Giving Thanks
Maybe Gratitude Day is a great idea, or Gratitude Month. I don’t even pretend to know, though I do understand that maintaining a grateful attitude is good for your health.
So go ahead and get that “attitude of gratitude” if you can. Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends, and, well, happy Gratitude Day (or Month) to everyone else!
