The Thirtieth Day

When I was in elementary school, they taught us this little ditty to help us remember the various months' and the number of days:

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November:
All the rest have thirty-one,

excepting February - a month alone,
to which we twenty-eight assign,
'til leap year gives it twenty-nine.

Why this particular little verse comes to mind is that we have just completed, as of today, the last of the 30-day months.

I don't know why the various months were assigned the particular number of days though I have heard all manner of theories from the well-educated and the not-so-well-educated as to how the decisions on subdivision occured.

One thing I do know is that reaching the 30th of November always fills me with a sense of completion. Within the month of December is an expectation that the shortened days and the crisply cinnamon scented air will be heralding the time when people are suppose to remember that they have fellow man inhabiting the planet with them.

Sometimes, that understanding is no more than a pious hope.

Witness the violence at several stores as people literally trampled and killed someone just to be 'first' to save a couple of bucks on something they were going to buy. No bargain is worth the life of another human being in the name of the almighty dollar!

What were these people thinking?

Obviously, they were not thinking much of anything because the 'herd mentality' had overshadowed all else.

Lemmings.

It reminds me of a disturbing movie I saw as a gradeschooler of the march of the lemmings toward their own demise. No one stopped to ask 'why are we doing this?' or 'where are we going?'.

Nope.

They just plunged off the cliff to their death like the hundreds before them who didn't manage to have a separate thought about personal responsibility and safety.

People are supposed to be different.

Why do we need to murder someone to save $5 on a sweater that Aunt Marge will NEVER wear?

Why do we need to literally tear the doors off of their hinges in order to pick up savings on a video game that means nothing when the power has been cut off because we didn't manage to pay the light bill?

I can't answer these questions.

But I know the end of November this year seems to herald the beginning of a most uncivil shopping season that will only end badly for all concerned if we don't turn our hearts back to what our days and nights are supposed to be filled with and concerned over.

I cannot imagine the humble followers of Christ trampling one another to get to the manger. Likewise, I can't see the end of the month coming and the wise men killing their camels in a mad jockey race for which one gets to be first to slop down a gift before the baby who means nothing more than a finish line to their ego.

It just doesn't seem right.

So today, I take this last day of the month to think about things ending and thing beginning.

I'd like to put an end to my personal selfishness.

I'd like to end my desires to do evil.

I'd like to be able to stop on the last day of this month and have the feeling that all of my pet vices will not have any control over me anymore.

And then, I'd like to start seeing my fellowman the way Father does.

I don't know them all personally, but He does. And He sees all of His children as the radiant points of light they CAN be and weeps over those who have willingly chosen to dim or extinguish their own heaven sent brilliance for the siren call of the world who will neither honor nor remember them when that poor choice is made.

I'd like to start the first day of December truly being the kind of person that has charity all year long instead of just while the Tabernacle Choir sings of love and brotherhood during the season of lights and presents and the infant Jesus.

Why is it so easy to get to the end of our days remembering the baby but not the Man?

Jesus didn't stay in the cradle.

I don't think we were intended to do that either - physically or emotionally. Most certainly, our spiritual growth should outstrip the confines of the manger and reach out to all men.

just thinking while the orchestra plays this Sabbath morning as I am home with a sick boy.