A Day To Remember-- World Sickle Cell Day, June 19th

The calendar is loaded. Just about every day of the year is spoken for for celebrating or marking some event, idea, concept and dare I say, obsession. Some are worthy and even brilliant. The rare one is deeply embedded within the canon and even more rarely have attained the stature of shibboleths that are not to be messed with. I will steer clear of these latter, though some are so entrenched that they are beyond appearing in the international order of world days. Indeed, all of us, in our own way, enjoy, celebrate and revere these rare examples.

The ones that I have no truck with are the obscure and the pointless. Like, for example, Defend The Donot Day (Feb 24) - for crying out loud! - or ADWN, an acronym for a A Day Without News, Feb 22, that Wikipedia gaily assures me exists. And there is World Cat Day (August 8) - for goodness sake - and World Tripe Day (October 24), as if we don’t already have enough of that dished out on a daily basis. You just have to listen to certain world leaders, especially what they say in their early morning rants. And then there is World Pest Day (June 6) - good grief! -which, in the spirit of conservation or parsimony, could be twinned with the day for Trump, sorry, Tripe and, which gives me an idea. Why not have a World Parsimony Day when the entire caboodle could be dispensed with in one massive blowout? But judging by the range of days that already plague us, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is already such a beast in existence somewhere.

So, if one is fed up with all these pointless days, why promote another one? Well, there are some days that are heavy, not only with symbolism, but also with real value. So, it is with some confidence that I present to you, again, this June 19, World Sickle Cell Day. This day reminds us that the battle against sickle cell is still on and that the fight against this debilitating and often fatal disease continues. Even though there are advances every year, sickle cell disease is still responsible for a significant number of deaths in children under five years of age in many countries.

Do your bit to help the fight. Go visit the website: www.sleonesickle.org to see what you can do to help.

Tell Fren Tru