Post Towel Day Thoughts

Donna commented,

Guess it's Towel Day. Guess I know what I'll be wearing to work.

Think Howard will wear his towel first?
donna in evanston | 05.26.09 - 9:21 am

I started to respond in the comments, but it got long enough--and link-filled enough, that I decided I should just bump it to the front page.
..............
Towel Day was yesterday, actually
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towel_Day

But I'm sure it's the thought that counts. ;) As it happens, I went to the gym yesterday, so I was celebrating even though I wasn't aware of it.

This is from an article I just found:

May 25th is a High Holy Day for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fans: it's Towel Day, the annual celebration of the life and work of the hoopiest frood of all, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy creator Douglas Adams.

There's some delicious irony there, what with the "High Holy Day" reference. Douglas Adams was, by all accounts, rather "devout" in his atheism. I recall reading a story about a man in hospice care who was comforted, as he approached death, that he knew where his towel was. Adams, when he heard about this, was apparently somewhat uncomfortable. I wasn't sure if that was because he was easily embarrassed, or if it was because of his concerns about the negative effects of religion.

But whether or not one believes in a "higher being" of some sort, I think we routinely see plenty of evidence that, as much as we might wish we could, we're not driving this thing. Speaking to an atheist, I would never say "Let go and let God"--in fact, even as a lifelong Christian I've never expecially liked that saying. But I think that there comes a time for most of us that we need to learn to "let go" of our sense of being in complete control of the events in our life.

I've already done half a dozen impossible things before breakfast today, so I will have to come back to these thoughts a little later...

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