AUGUST 17: SEE THE VALUE OTHERS MISS 🖤♻️💛
Some things are overlooked because they are old.
Some because they are unfashionable.
Some because superstition got there first.
Some because their work happens quietly, without applause.
August 17 gives us a curious collection of reminders that value is not always where the spotlight is pointing.
Today is National Thrift Shop Day, celebrating secondhand shops and the usefulness, economy and simple pleasure of giving objects another life. It is also Black Cat Appreciation Day, intended in part to push back against old superstitions surrounding black cats. And National Nonprofit Day recognizes organizations whose work often happens quietly inside communities rather than on a corporate marquee. (National Day Calendar)
And because every philosophical meditation needs refreshments, August 17 is also National Pineapple Juice Day. 🍍 National Day Calendar says the observance was established through a 2023 collaboration with Dole Packaged Foods and is celebrated annually on August 17. (National Day Calendar)
There are a couple of other observances aboard today's little calendar cart too: National I Love My Feet Day and National Massachusetts Day. (National Day Calendar)
♻️ SECONDHAND DOESN'T MEAN SECOND-RATE
A thrift shop is a small rebellion against the idea that newer automatically means better.
A book someone finished becomes someone else's discovery.
A chair gets another kitchen.
A coat gets another winter.
Something discarded becomes useful again because somebody looked at it and saw possibility instead of previous ownership.
There is a life lesson hiding between the mismatched coffee cups.
Sometimes we discard ideas, people, skills and even parts of ourselves because they no longer fit the room we were standing in.
That doesn't necessarily mean they have lost their value.
Sometimes they simply need another room.
🖤 THE CAT DIDN'T CREATE THE SUPERSTITION
Then there is the black cat.
For centuries, human beings have been remarkably talented at attaching stories to things and then reacting to the stories as though the things themselves created them.
The cat remains...
a cat. 😸
Black Cat Appreciation Day asks people to look past the mythology and appreciate the animal itself. (National Day Calendar)
That's a useful habit far beyond cats.
Before deciding what something means, it can be worth asking:
What am I actually looking at... and what story did somebody teach me to put on top of it?
🐰🕳️ There goes another rabbit.
💛 THE WORK THAT DOESN'T ALWAYS MAKE THE HEADLINES
National Nonprofit Day points toward another kind of easily missed value.
Many nonprofits work in the unglamorous spaces between a problem and the person who needs help: food, shelter, education, health, conservation, animals, community services, arts and thousands of other needs. The observance specifically recognizes nonprofits' positive impact on communities and the wider world. (National Day Calendar)
Some of the most important work in a society isn't performed beneath spotlights.
Sometimes it happens beneath fluorescent lights in a donated office at 7:30 on a Tuesday morning.
⏳ AND ON THIS DATE...
August 17 has carried some enormous moments.
In 1807, Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat, later popularly known as the Clermont, began its New York-to-Albany voyage. It became the first commercially successful passenger steamboat. (Empire State Plaza)
In 1908, Émile Cohl's Fantasmagorie was released. The roughly two-minute film, made from hundreds of drawings, is widely regarded as one of the earliest hand-drawn animated films and often as the first fully animated cartoon. (Wikipedia)
In 1945, Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaimed Indonesia's independence on August 17. (INSITE: Asia)
And in 1969, Woodstock rolled through its extraordinary Sunday program and into Monday morning after rain and delays stretched the festival beyond its planned ending. Jimi Hendrix would ultimately close the gathering on August 18. (HISTORY TV Denmark)
Steamships.
Animation.
Independence.
Woodstock.
Not a bad little Monday. 😏
🍍 TODAY'S THOUGHT
Maybe August 17 is asking us to practice a particular kind of attention.
Look again at the discarded thing.
Look again at the misunderstood creature.
Look again at the quiet organization.
Look again at the idea everyone has already labeled.
Because sometimes...
VALUE IS HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT.
And sometimes it is hiding beside a lamp shaped like a pineapple in the back corner of a thrift shop for $3.99. 🍍🤣
August 17, 2026
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