All around the world, there are whispers of a holiday being celebrated today…across the United States… in select areas… by a handful of people. Happy Sweetest Day to you all!

Do you know how Sweetest Day originated?  It was FAR from a scam, and it was not intended to be the red-(or pink)-headed step-child of Valentine’s Day that it has become.

Some celebrate, some refuse – but let’s all learn and/or REMEMBER what this holiday and the art of leverage is all about….

The Sweetest Intent

This holiday originated, not to be just another financial-stimulus package under the guise of a “let’s show our love” mantra. It will not take more than the right Google search to find that the ORIGINAL intent was quite selfless.

Sweetest day originated from Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1920s, as more than 20,000 boxes of chocolate candies were delivered to the less fortunate (most notably, orphans).

So why is this fact still seemingly known by so few people, even in the few regions of the world it is celebrated?

From Sweet to Sour

Holidays do not just “pop up”, almost all holidays have deep-rooted history (often going back thousands of years).

This holiday DID pop up though, and when it did, it was in our nature to be skeptical.  Those of us that are familiar with this infant holiday fall into three general groups:

1. Those that celebrate for the sake of celebrating, no questions ask
2. Those that think it is a scam for card companies, no more questions asked
3. Those that do not pendulum swing because they don’t stop asking questions.

Unfortunately, using great things to push bad products is good business…

Sweetest Day is a victim.  Sweetest Day is the poor scapegoat of the pent up ‘sour’ feelings much of society has for a greater issue which we try not to think about.

Many things which start out sweet turn sour. Unfortunately, money makes the world go round. Unfortunately, using great things to push bad products is good business.

Spend your Holidays Spending Cash!

While it may not appear to be the Sweetest Holiday, it is the sweetest, and most recent, example of how one thing can be leveraged, twisted, repurposed and transformed into something entirely different.

An important trend in life is seen in its cycles. An important characteristic of cycles in humanity is seen in our habits.

We think manipulation is bad, while marketing is good. Yet it is all related friends, after all good marketing is born out of strong manipulation. Holidays are a GREAT way of influencing a cyclical behavior within an economy.  Holidays are a GREAT means to exploit a certain timeframe to obtain business results.

Some of the best movements can begin altruistically and can be misused.  Once those movements are misused, those movements often become misunderstood.

Repeat Customers… Repeat Holidays… Repeat History

Sweetest Day is not the only misused, and often misunderstood, holiday.

There is REASON to celebrate holidays such as Christmas (which has become so much more than a ‘Christian Holiday’ at this point, as anyone with eyes and a checkbook knows all too well).  In order for someone to be “giving”, someone else needs to be “getting”.

In the duality of our existence, giving cannot exist without receiving.  We may be taught it is “better to give than it is to receive”, and while it’s an important point because it reminds us to strive for selflessness, it is ALSO important to remember one does not exist without the other.  At some point, it is important to GIVE and to RECEIVE, and do both gracefully!

Many things, holidays included, have A LOT OF TRUTH wrapped within a layer of lies.   Let’s not become a “Sweetest Day” victim ourselves.   WE ARE THE CONSUMER.  WE ARE THE DECIDERS. What we do, and how we chose to celebrate a holiday — or any day for that matter – is up 100% to us!!

It’s Sweet & Sour… but let’s not be Bitter!

If you want to help make the world less selfish, be more selfless yourself.  From there, you can be a SELFLESS PERSON and learn how to operate and navigate in this very SELFISH WORLD.

We can infect this selfish world with cells of selflessness – and watch it evolve by changing it from within.

My vote?  Let’s give this day back to the orphans!

Is there anything much sweeter than that?