Happy May Day!

 Happy May Day!  Or Happy International Workers' Day!  Maybe we should dance around a Maypole singing "Solidarity Forever."

I imagine that most of us will go to our jobs on this fine May Day. Well, those of us in the U.S. will go to our jobs, if we still have jobs. May Day is a holiday in many other parts of the industrialized world.

In my elementary school in the 1970's, we had a May Day celebration that focused on flowers and Maypoles, not on workers. Looking back, I'm amazed that our teachers were able to rig together a Maypole. We spent weeks practicing the weaving of the ribbons in the Maypole dance. We had a whole Mayday festival. Parents came. There was a Mayday king and queen.

Ah, those good old pagan school days!

When I was a child, I liked the idea of leaving flower bouquets on people's front porches.  These days, I'd be hesitant to do that, even though I am up before the dawn.

I have rarely lived in a place where May was more springlike than summerlike.  But the nights cooled off, so May has often been the most tolerable month of the year, regardless of where I've lived.

Here in the mountains of North Carolina, we've had a colder than usual winter and spring has kept bouncing us back to winter.  But still, we're moving from flower season to green season.  Today I drive down to Spartanburg for the first time in a week--maybe I'll buy strawberries on my way back.  It's not a bouquet of flowers, but surely it's a fitting way to celebrate May Day.

Today I go to Spartanburg Methodist College for a morning of faculty development (where I hope to have the mysteries of Canva explained to me) followed by a Faculty Appreciation Lunch. I'm trying not to feel sad about how many years I've been teaching and how few Faculty Appreciation events there have been.

No, let me not be swamped by sadness. Let me focus on the joy of being in a place that appreciates the faculty and a spot in the world where I can celebrate May Day with strawberries.