What are we to do with Earth Day?

The Standard argument is this: The environment is a mess, the earth is in serious trouble, we need to think about how to help our earth everyday. But Earth Day, the argument continues, invites us to relegate environmental concerns to a special day and therefore to disregard such concerns for the remainder of the year.

I did not buy such an argument about Valentine's Day and I don't buy it about Earth Day either. A special day in honor of caring for the earth, like a special day to honor love, is simply meant to mark something we ought to be remembering all of the time. But far from diminishing that honor and reverence, the special day increases it, but filling that which is being honored with special meaning.

Holidays and days of commemoration have always been instituted to specially commemorate something we hold sacred or fundamental Such days greatly solidify and augment our finding such things important, and thus contribute to our taking them more seriously.

And so it is with Earth Day. When we have a day to pause and remember what we owe this earth - the trouble it is in, our contribution to that trouble, and the steps we need to take to fix things - we find that our appreciation of the earth and our part in it are heightened. So let us celebrate Earth Day and let us take the lessons of the celebration with us throughout the whole year.