International BonBon Day

On my Facebook status the other day, I posed two important questions:

1) When is it I get to lie in bed all day reading novels and eating bonbons?

2) What exactly are bonbons?

I got an overwhelming response from people who posted on my wall to comment on my status. Many of them wanted to define “bonbon” for  me, with the consensus being that it’s French for candy and can mean any kind of candy you want.  (My personal idealized BonBons would be dark chocolate filled with a creamy chocolate ganache). However, many other people flooded onto my Facebook page to comment on how much they, too, would like a day of lying around reading and eating bonbons. Clearly, we’re all feeling a little overwhelmed right about now.

One person suggested that for Sabbathkeepers like myself, the Sabbath ought to serve that role.  But while I love the Sabbath and credit it almost entirely with keeping me sane, I don’t think Sabbath rest is exactly the same as my imagined bonbon rest.  For one thing, Sabbath is a family day, and while I love having time to spend with the family, being responsible for kids, or church responsibilities, or any other kind of responsibility, is a direct violation of the principles of the holiday I am about to declare: Intenational BonBon Day.

Even when we do get unexpected days off — as, for example, today, when I am taking the day off work to stay home with a sick child — we are still responsible for other people, and/or we tend to fill those unexpected free hours with tasks and chores that have to get done (you should see today’s to-do list!) This also violates the BonBon spirit, which is to have a day with no items on your to-do list, and nothing checked off at the end of the day.

International BonBon Day (I will resist the temptation to shorten it to IBD as that has much less pleasant connotations) is essentially a selfish day.  It is best accomplished by taken an unplanned day off work, making sure children (if any) are parked with someone else, and refusing to do any housework, volunteer work, or even hobbies unless they’re purely fun.  Don’t involve other people unless they exist purely to make you feel better. We’re looking at serious self-indulgence here, my friends. If novels and bonbons aren’t your thing, lie around watching mindless TV and doing crochet (but only if it’s  useless crochet). Whatever it takes to make you feel that you have accomplished exactly nothing — except looking after yourself.

It’s pretty rare for a working mom of two to get a BonBon day, and I’m sure it’s not only people in my situation who need a day off.  Working people with or without kids, stay-at-home parents, people caring for elderly relatives — just about everyone could use a BonBon day.

We won’t be declaring a specific day because that’s just too hard to arrange. Instead, the International BonBon committee (me so far, but you can get involved too) recommends you choose a day for your own convenience, even if that involves a little inconvenience to others.  You may have to co-ordinate your BonBon Day with those of others around you … for example, the first step in a good BonBon Day for a mom is obviously to leave the kids with Grandma, whereas if you’re a busy retiree with a dozen committments, the first step in planning your BonBon Day is to tell your daughter you can’t take the kids that day.  So we may need to stagger our celebrations to help each other out, but that’s OK.  Remember, if we plan it right, there’ll be BonBons enough for all.

With writers racing to finish NaNoWriMo, our American friends getting ready for big Thanksgiving dinners, wintery weather closing in here in the northern hemisphere, and the spectre of Christmas shopping and other December activities hanging over us all like the Sword of Thingummy, late November seems like the perfect time to plan your own celebration of International BonBon Day.

I already have mine planned — but I’m not telling you when, because I won’t be taking calls that day.