the lost man chronicles
03. a day of your own

"Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done."
~ Genesis 2: 1-3

Every man should create his own personal holiday—a day of renewal, for purging and being reborn.

Some might scorn the idea, scoffing that it is frivolous, because it does not conform to the norm and absconds society's long list of established communal rites. But this alone is good enough reason to disparage commercial complacency, and originate a droll day of your own.

For some, over time it might be honed into an annual event where she goes off yonder to exorcise all the cumulated evil spirits that have besieged her the year gone by. For others, it might simply be a party to celebrate being alive, a yearly fete, to beget joy for no reason other than the acknowledgement of one's personal fortune of friends, well-being and wisdom.

Or, since as an individual, one is not beholden to a nation of expectations—she might take her holiday whenever the requisite sensation overcomes her. One might begin with something as simple as a drawn out siesta, which evolves into a fiesta inviting a reinvigorated self.

However, in order to truly make it a holiday one must endow it with meaning. To do so you must create a ritual, enhanced with myths, symbols, semaphores, stories, and moving signs that say "why." Together they will empower the celebration to be something beyond our normal prosaic existence. All these simple things and the creative paradigm that holds them all together will make your personal holiday both meaningful and memorable to you, if not others. Costumes, special meals, timing, words, music, dance, perhaps even a trance for two, all these are practices with which you can design this rite of renewal.

Either way, it is a wonderful and glorious achievement to create one's own holiday, especially if it is a sure way to renew one's life once again.

... Los ritos son necesarios.
- Qué es un rito ? – dijo el principito.
- Es algo también demasiado olvidado – dijo el zorro. – Es lo que hace que un día sea diferente de los otros días, una hora de las otras horas. Mis cazadores, por ejemplo, tienen un rito. El jueves bailan con las muchachas del pueblo. Entonces el jueves es un día maravilloso ! Me voy a pasear hasta la viña. Si los cazadores bailaran en cualquier momento, todos los días se parecerían y yo no tendría vacaciones.
~ El Prinicipito, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry






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