30 DAYS HATH JANUARY

The American calendar is in shambles.

For example: A month can have 28 days, or 29 or 30 or 31. So you can't properly use month as a basis for measurement. The fact that fewer murders were committed, or retail sales were lower, this month than last, means little...it might simply be a reflection that this is a 28 day month, and last month had 31 days.

Also, our national holidays, om which most people don't work, are not spread equally across the months. Some, like March and August, have none, and some have one, some two. Labor Day, which is the first Tuesday after the first Monday of September (who thought of that absurdity?) can come anywhere from the 2nd to the 8th of the month. The Spanish word for month is mes...and that would be a good word to describe our calendar.

There is no particular cosmic reason why a week must have 7 days or that there be exactly 4 weeks in a month (which, actually, except for a 28 day February, there isn't now. Substantial variations have occurred throughout history and throughout the world. So, to straighten the calendar out some, to organize our time a bit better, here is my proposal for the new 21st Centurion Calendar:

Each week would have 10 days...think of them as 3 days ON followed by 1 day OFF, followed by 4 days ON followed by 2 days OFF. The ON days could generally be school or work days, the OFF days are rest days. All national holidays would be set on OFF days.

There would be 3 weeks, or 30 days, in each month...12 months per year. That's 360 days. Every month would begin with the first day of the week (say, Sunday) , and end on the 10th day of a week (say, Victory...see below). At the end of the 12 months, there would be a 5 day countrywide Jubilee...parades, parties, musical extravaganzas, fanfare, spectacles, prayers, benedictions, blessings, etc. to celebrate the joy and wonder of life. Total: 365 days. (Every 4th year the Jubilee would be extended to 6 days).

Benefits?

*** 9 OFF days a month for sailing with the wind, dreaming and soul searching. Plus that year end Jubilee! That's an almost 20% increase in personal pleasure time over the 8 weekend days per month we now have.

***Symmetry in the months (as we now have only in weeks), beneficial for statistical comparisons, scheduling, calculating time intervals, etc. What's today's date? It's a Tuesday...it's either the 3rd, 13th or 23rd of the month. Easy.

***A measure of order to that important element in our lives: Time.

I have thoughts about changing the names of the days to Beauty, Glory, Hope, Justice, Pride, Respect, Trust, Unity, Valor, Victory...but that's for another post.