Happy Exalano Day

In our lives, we have witnessed a great adventure. Amazing machines have been launched into space to explore the heavens. The machines have returned some

outstanding images of our solar system, our galaxy, and the universe. These visions have expanded our horizons and helped us to appreciate the magical

extent of the sky above us. As the machines have marched forth into space, the

people of Earth have also developed a new appreciation of our world and the

awesome universe we live in. Once again, the human race is demonstrating its tenacious will to march forth and seek out new, exciting vistas.

This very human desire to march forth and explore is not limited to scientists and space exploration. Instead we need to recognize that we are each born with an instinctive curiosity to look out further and farther, to explore beyond the next horizon, and to seek out something new every day. At times, however, we need to be reminded to make the effort to step away and to explore the world around us. We need to remember to be curious and to keep marching forth.

There is one day on the calendar that annually reminds us about our instinctive curiosity to explore. That day is the fourth day of March, Exalano Day.

Exalano Day was created many years ago as a unique holiday where we are all called upon to march forth from our daily routine and to seek out something new and different. The annual call to celebrate Exalano Day has been issued in each of the last thirty-seven years by the Exalano Day Committee (the EDC), a very, very small group of people on a mission to annually remind everyone that one of our goals in life is to march forth and explore. The word 'Exalano' comes from the Greek word meaning 'to march forth', and hence it is natural to declare that the fourth day of March should be called Exalano Day. On this most unique holiday, the Exalano Day Committee declares that everyone, everywhere, should satisfy their own curiosity and march forth from our homes to explore something new, something fun, and something exciting, as we were all born to do.

On Monday, March 4, 2013, all of us should celebrate Exalano Day by marching forth and exploring a new world. Where you go and how you satisfy your curiosity on Exalano Day is up to you – just be sure to look beyond the next horizon!