National Nothing Day

Many years ago, a man named Harold Pullman Coffin gave us a truly deserved holiday. Coffin made his living as a newspaperman writing a column called The Needle in the San Francisco Examiner. He found himself thinking about and getting tired of special interest groups laying claim to a day on the calender far too often. He felt that he needed to do something to give us a day to really focus on ourselves. In 1972 he established a National Nothing Day foundation to take the steps to making this a recognized event and a year later in 1973 on January 16th, the first holiday was celebrated.

So what do you do on National Nothing Day? Just what the title implies; nothing. Some people will say that such a holiday promotes laziness but psychologists claim that it can be healthy. Extinguishing yourself from day to day activity can be rewarding for the mind, body and soul.

The goal of National Nothing Day is to do nothing and observe nothing, so in actuality, observing the holiday is in violation of itself. Everyone has their own ideas of doing nothing. Some feel that watching television, reading or playing video games all day is doing nothing but you're actually doing something. The idea behind this holiday is to introduce yourself to an event free day. Some great things to do are take a nap, watch the birds, catch a sunrise or sunset or head out to a scenic park and take a long walk. Don't forget your four-legged friend. Sure, you are actually doing something but you are taking the time to notice things you are usually far too busy to appreciate. It is argued that giving yourself a Nothing Day once a month can be very beneficial to your mental and physical health but really, who has time for that.

That being said, was Coffin really looking out for the human race by delivering us such a contradictory holiday or was it simply a means of amusement for himself. He created a holiday that could by no means be fulfilled. Even by breathing we are still performing some act of something. His goal was to give us a day that we didn't have to observe something yet by doing so, we have to make an observation of the day to be aware of it's existence. Perhaps he really just wanted to add more confusion to our day to day chaos and stress that overwhelms us so deeply.

Whatever you do on National Nothing Day, make it count. You get one day out of the year to claim the day solely for yourself. Turn off your phone, step away from the computer, hide the television remote and throw away that errand list that has been accumulating all week. Enjoy yourself in a peaceful state and appreciate the things you observe today, it may be a whole year until you get another day of peace again. No matter what you do, celebrate National Nothing Day, but do not observe the holiday.