May Day, and all of its meanings

Today, is May 1st, also known as May Day.

I'd always thought of May Day as being a Druid sort of festival, envisioning young people attired in diaphanous garb, skipping around a May Pole, in a typical spring-time setting.  I'm not quite sure where I got this idea... I've never worn diaphanous garb  (although I do like that word)... I've never seen a May Pole, nor do I know who typically sets them in place, and while I have been known to skip, I've never skipped with a group, in a circle.



While my notion is far from being right, it's not quite entirely wrong.  In fact, while May 1 is when we often start seeing real signs of spring, it's technically closer to the first day of astrological summer, than the first day of astrological spring...  but it did originate as a celebration-of-nature sort of thing, with lots of flowers, and skipping in the fields.  And it is associated with the Celtic festival of Beltane and is a celebration of springtime fertility... so in the beginning, there certainly would have been lots of dancing and skipping around.

Ahhh... for simpler times.

Over the years, May Day has changed.  In the United States, May Day, at one time, was also  known as International Workers' Day.  IWD was first celebrated to commemorate an 1886 incident in Chicago, Illinois, where police killed a number of demonstrators at an assembly for a union strike, pushing for an 8-hour day.  Interestingly enough, IWD is now a national holiday in over 80 countries -- although not the United States.   In the late 1950s, President Eisenhower proclaimed May 1st as Law Day... a day to reflect on the role of law in the foundation of this country.  It's not a government holiday, and for the most part, the only group who takes note of Law Day is lawyers...  lawyers will often volunteer in special educational programs at libraries or schools, to emphasize the importance of legal rights.

And while May Day is also known as Labor Day in many parts of the world ... an official holiday to celebrate workers, in the U.S. and Canada, Labor Day is celebrated in September.. as an official holiday to celebrate workers.

I'm not quite clear on how a pagan ritual, celebrating fertility and springtime, shifted to a recognition of civil rights and workers rights, and a society based on laws...   and I am saddened at the loss of an excuse to skip, and perhaps frolic.  So I suppose I shall have to skip, and celebrate spring on my own time.

But before I leave this topic and have another cup of tea, I want to give a nod to one more meaning for May Day... or technically, mayday.  Mayday is a special word, a word used internationally, to signal an emergency.  In most languages, mayday translates as mayday.  It comes from the French phrase for 'come help me'.  I have been in a situation where it was necessary to send out a mayday signal, and rest assured that it was not a happy or carefree situation.    I know that not all mayday distress calls have a happy ending, but -- at least that time -- the outcome was wonderful, and everyone was safe and sound at the end of the day.  So - for me - even this meaning of mayday leaves me with happy thoughts, and makes me want to skip, and frolic and celebrate...   celebrate life.  Which brings me back to spring.

I think I'll return to simpler times.  In 'Laurie's world', May Day, or mayday, shall henceforth be known as a time to look around and appreciate nature.. a time to enjoy the budding trees, the flowers in bloom, the increase in hours of sunshine, the anticipation of summer.  It shall be a time to skip, and frolic, and celebrate life.  And if you want to have a cup of tea as you celebrate, well that's always good, too.

Blogging

Not long ago, someone mentioned to me that - while I allow comments on my blog posts - it doesn't seem like I actively encourage comments... and that I rarely respond to comments.  This individual then commented that he thought the whole idea of having a blog was to encourage comments, and then engage in a dialog.

With all due respect, I disagree.

One of the great things about blogs is their flexibility.  Originally, blogs were largely online journals, or diaries.. or logs.. which is where the word came from  (web log).  But today, people are using blogs for all sorts of things.  They can be made private - invitation only, or they can be public and widely promoted.  The private blogs are typically being used as  in-cloud storage, for things that the poster is not accessing often, yet wants to have available.

But it is the wide variety of uses for public blogs that I find amazing.  Just off the top of my head...
-blogs that essentially do nothing more than gather and provide links to other blogs on a specific topic, -blogs that provide news/information/education on a specific topic
-personal journals, or diaries, sharing details of the blogger's life
-a slight variation of the journal/dairy, where the blogger shares details of a vacation, or details about a major event  (for example a wedding, or a birth)
-blogs intended to promote various businesses, or books, or products

And then there's the sort of blog I do... it's what I call a soap-box blog, although it's a soft-soap-box.  While I generally avoid hot-button issues like politics and religion, I post about things that have annoyed me, or interested me, or intrigued me... things that have caught my attention, and I post about things on which I have an opinion.  Why do I do it?  Partly, because I can.  There are a number of blogging platforms available, most of which are free.  It's extremely easy, and frankly - I like seeing the number of visits that show up in my stats.  But I mostly blog, because this allows me to express my opinion without worrying about getting into an argument.   After all, if you don't like what I wrote, that's ok.  You don't have to finish reading it and  if you really don't like it, you don't have to come back.  Heck, I'll never know... my stats show numbers, but they don't show names.  If you want, you can post a comment --  and I allow all comments that are not spam -- but I don't respond to 99% of the comments.  I assume your comment is intended to stand on its own; if you want to engage in a discussion, you can email me, or call me.

Not all soap-box-bloggers would agree with me... and you don't have to look hard to find blogs where every post ends with some variation of 'What do you think?'  There's nothing wrong with this,  I follow some blogs that do this, and on occasion I'll comment.  Frequently, the blogger will respond - if nothing else, they'll respond with something like 'Thank you for your comment."   And that's ok, too.  As I said, one of the great things about blogs is their tremendous flexibility.  As my grandmother used to say.. Do What You Want.

By the way, I do find it annoying that Blogger means the blogging platform, and blogger means 'one who blogs'.  I don't know if that was intentional on Blogger's part or not, but I find it annoying.  Not annoying enough to write a post about, and not annoying enough for me to leave Blogger and use another platform, but annoying nonetheless.

So ---  what do I do when I'm mildly annoyed?  Why - I have another cup of tea, of course.

Boston Marathon Bombing

Over thirty years ago, my husband and I moved to Massachusetts.  We've lived in a number of different locations; currently we're about 25 minutes hour north of Boston, which is the furthest we've been from Boston since we moved here.  We don't run, and neither of us is a marathon fan, but the Boston Marathon is a big deal here.  I mean, a Big Deal.  These days, I typically go the website of a local tv station in the early afternoon of Marathon Monday, to watch the live coverage of the race.  But in the past,  I worked in a building right on Boylston Street... the corner of Exeter and Boylston, to be exact.  For those of you not familiar with this area, that's less than a block away from where the explosions were.

The pictures we're seeing, are very haunting.  Yes, the terrified, bloody faces are haunting.  The people being knocked to the ground by the blast, the people being carried in the arms of rescuers, or being wheeled away in wheelchairs -- those are all haunting.  But for me, some of the most haunting pictures are those of the sidewalks.  I've walked those sidewalks, many many times.  I know that area well.  There's not supposed to be blood on the sidewalks.

This nation has certainly had its share of tragedies... but this is closer to me, geographically, than any of the others have been.  So it feels different.

We have no family in New England, our families are spread out from Florida to Utah, with some family in Germany as well.  Between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, we heard from all of them.  As I said, we don't run, and we don't follow the sport of running, and all of our family knows this.  And most of the phone calls went along the lines of 'I don't think you guys ever go to see the Marathon in person, but I just wanted to check'.  My niece is currently in basic training in Texas..  so she's allowed no internet time, and her telephone time is also extremely limited.  But her ?training class? was informed that if anyone had family in the Boston area, or who might have been at the Marathon, they were permitted an extra phone call, just to make sure everyone was ok.  It's always nice to hear from family, and we make a point of staying connected and talking frequently... we didn't need this extra excuse to call.  Plus, I found that I was unable to adequately convey how this affected us.  I delayed posting about this, in the hopes that I would find the proper words, but I still don't have them.

The entire nation,and even other nations, are showing tremendous support to those affected by the Boston Marathon Bombing.  But perhaps the response that touched me the most was a sign projected on the facade of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in New York City.

You see...  that stylized 'B' in the picture, means the Boston Red Sox.  It's a special font, created by the Boston Red Sox, long before people really knew what fonts were.  The  rivalry between the New York sports teams, and the Boston sports teams -- especially the baseball teams -- is truly intense.  You can't fully appreciate this rivalry, unless you've lived here.   But this horrific act of terror transcends that traditional rivalry.  To me, this sign was more meaningful than if the word 'Boston' had been spelled out.

This is truly a sobering time.  

A time for tea, and further reflection.

(Please do not comment on this post, there are plenty of other places to comment on the bombing.  All comments will be removed.)