Thank You for Being a Friend
June 8 is National Best Friend Day according to, well, no one. Even the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post is stumped as to its origins. After much research, they decided it’s a hashtag holiday because so many people posted, forwarded, and tweeted #NationalBestFriendDay on June 8 that it eventually became reality. And who can argue with hordes of hashtaggers? Certainly not the morning news anchors who shared National Best Friend Day with millions more. Or the shrewd companies that seized the day to “celebrate the holiday” with sales promotions. Ah, shopping, isn’t that what best friends are for?
Before you add National Best Friend Day to your calendar, make sure you don’t confuse it with National Friendship Day. Although it’d be understandable what with new holidays continually being fabricated from National Grouch Day to National Hairball Awareness Day. By the way, I think my cat invented those.
Just like National Best Friend Day, National Friendship Day was also made-up, but at least it has a substantiated origin. It was created by Hallmark in 1919 so consumers would buy more greeting cards and, in their later parlance, “care enough to send the very best.”
Sadly, for those who liked licking envelopes, National Friendship Day fell out of custom during the Depression and didn’t reemerge until the late nineties when friendship was the prevailing zeitgeist, even internationally. Like 1997, when the United Nations named Winnie the Pooh the world’s Ambassador of Friendship. Admittedly, I was about to rail against the U.N. naming a cartoon, self-proclaimed “bear of very little brain” ambassador. I mean, it’s a global organization charged with preventing world wars and their choice of ambassador doesn’t even wear pants? And how would he shake hands, correction, paws, with all that sticky honey pot business? But then, I reconsidered. Maybe Winnie’s kindness, determination, and unexpected wisdom really could inspire humanity. All I am saying is give Pooh a chance.
Now, don’t worry if you miss celebrating National Best Friend Day. There are many other contrived friend-holidays to choose from with more being created every day. Let’s call them “folly-days,” you know, the kind of invented observances, like National Women’s Friendship Day and National Girlfriends Day, found on cutesy Internet calendars. Or National Boyfriend Day, which ironically is in the same month as Evaluate Your Life Day. Personally, I’m a fan of Ask A Stupid Question Day. At our house, we celebrate it daily.
Wait, there’s more. With National Make a Friend Day and the International Day of Friendship, there are oodles of opportunities to reach out to your buddies. The only “folly-day” I purposefully ignore is National Send a Card to a Friend Day. First of all, I already sent a card on Hallmark’s friend day. Second, it lands right on National Fettuccine Alfredo Day. I don’t think you have to ask which one I’ll be observing.
Although there is a glut of these friend “folly-days,” I know they speak to a truth. That there will never be enough days to acknowledge our friends. They are our family, our foundation, and pure evidence that the universe is good.
My friends have given me hope and laughter, usually in the opposite order. They often see me in ways I’ve tried to see myself my whole life. That’s probably because my friends know the passcode to my heart. We thrive on real connection, the never-ending perfection of our imperfections, the ability to nod “just like me,” and hold hands even when we’re miles apart.
As much as I love my friends, on National Best Friend Day I probably won’t buy them a card that reads, “I’m glad our friendship is tighter than our jeans.” Instead, I’ll text them a few words from a wise, lovable bear, “As soon as I saw you, I knew a grand adventure was about to happen.”
Carole Vasta Folley is an award-winning columnist and playwright. carolevf.com