The ARDS Foundation - Body, Mind, & Spirit

By Pastor Ian

Milestones

So what about this Birthday/ Anniversary thing? Why do we celebrate these milestone dates? What is it about the human psyche that wants to remember the past?

If I were cynical, which I hope I am not, I would say that we are greatly encouraged in our endeavors by the Greeting Card manufacturers who seek to promote their products. Whip up interest in birthdays and the likes and they sell more cards. It doesn’t just stop at birthdays and wedding anniversaries either, does it? Take a look at the greetings card section of any store and we can find cards for almost every possible event.

We have the ‘Personal’ Day’ cards like birthdays and anniversaries; we have the

‘Life-Event’ cards like graduation, new job, new home (new everything) new baby arriving soon (pregnancy) new baby arrived (no longer pregnant). Then we have the ‘Help’ cards like sympathy, good cheer, get well soon, thinking about you and so on. As ARDS survivors or family/friends of patients we know all about these, don’t we! Finally we have the ‘Religious Occasion’ cards like Christmas, Easter, Rosh Hashanah, Saints Days and so on.

So we have dates to remember and dates to celebrate and some dates are a bit of both. There is another whole range of events that I missed. How about Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, Grandparents’ Day, Secretaries Day, National Boss Day, Sweetest Day, Nurses Day and on and on. The number is almost endless and every country around the world has their own list as well as sharing some with others.

Now come on folks, some of these seem to be just plain weird. Who wants to celebrate their boss? The IV nurse with her little box of tricks brings pain…..I have a good memory! I don’t have a secretary and my wife would hit the roof if I suggested having one. Celebrate? Perhaps we also need to develop some “Forget Days.” I can easily understand the wish to celebrate happy events (Whoever heard a child complaining about a birthday?) but what is it about us that makes us want to remember sad times, especially when they are events like 9/11 in September? The only word, which comes to my mind, is ‘respect,’ because there are some events that happen during our lives that have to be acknowledged on an ongoing basis. We all remember the words “Lest we forget.”

Enough said! My calendar shows three special days this October.

• Columbus day on the 12th.
• United Nations Day on the 24th. and
• Halloween on the 31st.

I am sure that yours, like mine, shows one or two other special days which will relate to family members and will remind you to contact them by greetings card, letter or phone…and there we have it!! This celebrate/remember thing causes two very positive happenings in our lives. 1) We maintain relationships with friends and loved ones. 2) Out of respect we remember others and pray for them, some of whom we may never have met but admire for their courage or unselfish acts.

Talking about remembering… A minister tells of a time early in his ministry when he arrived in a small town of his youth to preach a sermon. Wanting to mail a letter, he asked a young boy if there was still a post office in town. When the boy had told him, the minister thanked him and said, “If you’ll come to the Church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone how to get to heaven.” “I don’t think I’ll be there,” the boy said. “You don’t even remember your way to the post office!”

Sometimes of course, a year may be notable for its happiness and successes, and sometimes a year is remembered for a series of challenges. We who have discovered the meaning of the letters “ARDS” know all too painfully about that. (Remember: Every set back is a set up for a come back!)

You know, like everything else in our lives we need to seek balance. Too much remembering will tend to keep us living in the past in a “what if” world. Too much celebration might lead to avoidance of reality. God has given us the gift of freedom of choice to make this fantastic journey through the countryside of life, celebrating and remembering as we go, and hopefully in the process, growing in spiritual strength. We are each given the power to touch the lives of others in a positive way. There can be nothing nicer than to receive a card of friendship / encouragement in the mailbox, or pick up the phone and hear a friendly voice at the end of the line saying, “Hi, I’ve been thinking about you.”

A whole industry exists because we CHOOSE to celebrate; because we CHOOSE to send greetings cards, because we CHOOSE to remember, and I for one do not begrudge the cost of making someone else’s day. It seems to me that remembering the milestones, and celebrating our successes is a sure way to keep an upbeat and optimistic outlook on our lives.

The past will look after itself. The future brings no guarantees, so let’s celebrate the present as the gift it really is….but Bosses’ Day? That’s a stretch, even for me!