No. 56 of 108
August 8, 2025
Today is National (unnamed brand) Musubi Day.
Each day holds a multitude of noteworthy and celebratory events deemed unworthy to be so-called real and serious news. Let us take note, nonetheless. For example, about 368,000 babies will be born in the world – a joyous moment for loved ones and a fiercely hopeful one for humankind. Everyday…if we pause to notice and remember, even if a baby isn’t being born close to you. Millions of youth games are played in this country each week. Today, there will be conservatively tens of millions of winning teams, and ten of millions of teams that didn’t win but had fun nonetheless. Worth celebrating, even if there is no child playing close to you. There will be quieter, more personal triumphs, hard things finally settled, bathroom tub finally scrubbed, new recipe made. And there is National Musubi Day. I, for one, haven’t eaten the products included in the famous unnamed brand for about forty-five years. Nonetheless, I will celebrate this day with a musubi, or two. After all, though famous, they (the unnamed brand) did not invent the rice ball with a few flavor bombs, the humble portable comfort food of ancient peoples and modern foodies. Today, I will take note and be grateful for the ancient peoples who first made it so, the first farmers to grow rice, the water that floods fields, the nourishing mud, the first wild seeds that became rice, the field of cultivated salt. I will remember my teacher’s lesson that though musubi has become the term for rice ball, it actually means “union.” More nuance-ly, it means the bringing together that forms a whole. Without that coming together, no ono (deliciousness) to be had. May we be so.