chelsea cookJust as a reminder for the memory impaired, Saturday is our national Bunny Cake Day. The oddest this is that, so far, there has been nothing in the papers or internet about this. I think it is because of some basketball “something or other” that seems to be crowding out all important news. Not sure what that is all about but it much be super important as it takes precedence over all news; local, national and international. It even blanked out a very important action taken by the Pope. Now my understanding is that the pope is an important world wide figure but this Marchness has taken precedence over him. But! Anyway, we shall soldier on and do the proper celebration and pay homage to Bunny Cake Day.
Which brings up another thought. Realizing that several people have already taken cover of the dangerous implications when they read that I had a thought, let me explain first to relax the faint hearted. I have had ideas before and seldom ever did one of my thoughts or ideas cause more than a few problems. This isn’t one of those. One story in a book I am reading about long ago sea captains, told about a captain who was stranded for several years in the Islands in and around Tonga. I thought of those islanders today when reading about someone retiring and, because of some laws passed by the Oklahoma Legislature and the U S Congress, they are afraid they will not  have the wherewith-all to live in any degree of comfort. That took my mind back to those islanders as described by this sea captain. He lived among them for many years and became an important person to them. He knew them intimately.
Those islanders, of all the various “nations” in that group, all lived pretty much the same and had very similar customs. The part about “retirement” was interesting to me as I am officially retired on a fixed income and seems to be shrinking. Those semi-civilized islanders did not have that problem. If you were a member of that tribe/group and lived to old age, someone would make sure you had plenty to live with. After a life time of contributing to the tribe/group/clan, the group would then contribute back. Even the old women who could not fight battles or do the heavy work when they were young were taken care of in old age. That sounds quite appealing to me as it seems to be the mind set I remember our country having as I was raised.
This all started whilst talking about celebrations. We seem to need a reason to have a celebration here in the U S of A. Those natives of the Tonga Islands just would decide to have a festival and then go at it. It may be a large meal or it may last for days. Many primitive people had similar living patterns until “we” came along and civilized them. To our primitive ancestors, if something important happened, such as a red bird and a blue bird flying by the same morning, that was justification for a couple of days celebrating. After all, one never knew when such a momentous occasion would happen again. “Wahoo! Let’s party down!”...and they did. We have to keep an eye on the calendar and hope we can find a half hour to enjoy an occasion. But we really can’t enjoy it as we keep thinking of the work we have to do when we finish this interruption. It has often been said that we USA people live to work while most of the world works to live. Personally, I was one of the most fortunate people ever. I loved doing what I did and loved all the kids I had to work with. OK, OK, not “ALL” the kids after I quit being a band director and became a principal, but I loved all who would let me. There are too many stories about people who have to stay in a job they intensely dislike just to survive. It is time for some readjusting.
Have your own Bunny Cake Day (always the Saturday a week before Easter - or whenever you wish) or you could make up one of your own. Like: “Hey, Family, we are going to celebrate the third Saturday this month as it falls on a weekend. How special is that!” Then have cake and ice cream or sno-cones or licorice strips and make up silly games that make little or no sense but are fun. We Americans do not have enough fun and I hereby declare that must stop. GO! Have some fun.
Notice: I am going to have to take off the month of April. I have a book well under construction and have now found a typist - so I think with concentrated effort I can get this finished or very close. I will reactivate my blog for those who will read and/or respond on it. THEN we’ll start again in May.  
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