Monday, February 27, 2012

thoughts on the news of the day: leap year

hmmm…..
            What “would ya, could ya, should ya” do if you had an extra day in your life?  Would you take the day off and go for a picnic or a bike ride?  Would you finish up that project at work?  Would you play with your kids?  Visit your grandma?  Clean out the closet?
            Well, guess what?  This year you do.  We have one more day this February in  a year commonly called Leap Year.  It happens every four years in order to syncronize our calendar with the astronomical or seasonal year.   This keeps the calendar from drifting through the seasons too rapidly.  In the Hebrew calendar, a month is added seven times every 19 years. Wow! a whole month would really be nice – think of the vacations you could take!!
            When I was growing up, the big question was how old would you be if your birthday only came every four years?  When everyone else was 16, would you only be 4?  And …. Would you still get birthday presents, even though, technically, you didn’t have a birthday?  I have personally never know anyone born on February 29.  One of my friends came close – she was born on February 28 in a leap year.  She was always kind of grateful that she didn’t have strange birthdays to deal with. 
            I guess I should say here that we should all do something special, something we wouldn’t ordinarily do on this special extra day.  I could … but I won’t.  That is way too obvious.  Instead, let’s just be grateful for every day … every day when we can enjoy our family, be grateful for employment, food and shelter … not just one day every four years … but every day.
            hmmm…..

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