Among my great collections of oddball books filled with oddball and fascinating pieces of trivia is a great little publication called “The Book of Days” put together by Guen Sublette. Published in 1996, Ms. Sublette compels readers to purchase her amazing book by promising the pages will be a “compendium of celebrations, common and arcane,” which will include National Anxiety Month (some of us may require more than a month), International Left Hander’s Day (a beloved granddaughter will be thrilled to know she has a whole day in honor of her left-handedness ), National Procrastination Week (my personal favorite) and Egg Salad Week,” among many others.
This charming book is filled with days, weeks and months designated for certain — well, things. Occasions. Stuff. I began to browse through it to see if I could make a column out of one of the special days and I found one and I discovered that August has a bunch of Great Occasion Days, such a Watermelon Day and National Smile week. The significant day I selected to write about today is because I kind of liked the idea, and it is called “Be an Angel Day.”
You’re wondering if I believe in angels, right? Since there’s never been proof one way or another, my mind, such as it is, remains wide open. Some folks are absolutely certain they’re out there and believe without a jot of doubt that they have personal Guardian Angels (aka GAs) hovering about all the time to get them out of difficulties. And trouble. I’m not so sure. But those people are. Imagine if it were true! We could always “step in it” as they used to say, meaning get into trouble, and poof! In no time at all with the help of our GA’s, we’d “step out of it” and be clear and clean of any of the bad stuff we ourselves had created. Oh, what a perfect world we’d then inhabit.
Seems improbable to me however, since if we just watch the evening news, we see an awful lot of undeserving people getting into terrible situations not of their doing, and stay there, and no Guardian Angel swoops in to save them. I know there have been times in my life when I wished those feathered beings really existed. I even invented a couple in my way-back youth and named them, hoping if I did, they’d appear. Theodore was my guy angel and Charmaine my lady named for an old beloved doll of mine. But neither Theodore nor Charmaine came to the rescue when I managed to create personal screw-ups which over these eight plus decades I’ve managed to do with alacrity and skill. (Hey, it’s a gift not all of us get to have.) No angels fluttered down to save me. Never once, and there were plenty of onces. I found I had to face the music, own up to and take my comeuppances. Did I learn from my mistakes? I’m taking the fifth.
The author cheerfully suggests that every Aug. 22 we should act like angels, maybe even become angels here on earth, not just scanning the skies for them. We ought to, she says, “Do one small act of service for someone. Be a blessing in someone’s life every single day.” I guess it doesn’t have to be a huge big dramatic deal where everyone gasps and applauds. Maybe just picking up some product that’s fallen from a shelf in a store as you wheel your cart by. Perhaps walking past a new mother, looking down at her infant and saying, “That is perfect” and walking on. Or whispering to a shy little girl who may not ever even come close to being a Barbie Doll that she’s “just so pretty!” or to a little boy who feels ashamed because he’s no good at sports saying,“Hey! You’re the greatest. The world will know your name someday!” There are so many ways of honoring the Be an Angel Day, and I’m pretty sure the rules are that we’re not allowed to wait around for praise or thanks after we do The Good Thing. We do it and keep on moving.
Author Guen Sublette also suggests you don’t have to do individual angely things—it can be a group effort. You can gather together friends in multiples, think up ways to do anonymous angel good works, even meditate together, although that last would not work for me at all. I have tried group meditation but alas have always had to quickly quit because it is my, and only my, innards that always begin to detonate like a bull elephant in rut which quite ruins the mood for everyone. It’s embarrassing.
Did you know that there are ministers who teach weekly angel workshops at the Upperco, Maryland, Angel Heights Spiritual Center? And other places, too? Google it. You could attend workshops and seminars and learn how to do group GA things for those in need. And best of all maybe, eventually, you’d get to actually see or better yet, meet a real Guardian Angel, yours or someone else’s. I’d love to know how that works out for you. What’s their hair like? Do they shed feathers? Do they dress in modern garb or white robes as in paintings? When they speak, do their words come out as music? Do they grant wishes? Do they scold? Can they joke? Do their feet touch the ground? I’m not making fun. I seriously want to know. And maybe I could ask them whatever happened to Theodore and Charmaine although I’d be anxious about their answers, especially if any of their words were “…so we just gave up.”
So folks, when next Aug. 22 rolls around, any year, see if you can hook up with an Angel Day group and make our world a better one. The author says too that we should perhaps make an Angel Day just for ourselves sometimes, and she suggests that “one sure way to do so is to bake and serve some Angel Food cake. “ Umm—no thanks, GAs. I know you do really great stuff and you mean well, but if you’re truly out there, no offense, but eating that cake for which you’re named is like eating a sponge.
LC Van Savage is a Brunswick writer.
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