DAYS FOR JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING SHOW UNITY, DIVERSITY.

Byline: Mark Byers

TODAY is a holiday. No, not The Day After April Fools Day Day for those fools who slept through it the first time, although sleep does have something to do with it. Today is National Sleep Awareness Day.

Sponsored by the National Sleep Foundation, the goal of the holiday, in their own words, is to ``highlight not only the importance and benefits of adequate sleep but also the consequences of sleep loss.''

As if there is actually someone somewhere out there who is unaware of sleep. But this isn't the only unusual holiday harbored in the month of April. For example, the 19th through the 25th is National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week. Celebrate. Take a liver to lunch.

Also this month: Reading is Fun Week, Big Brothers and Sisters Awareness Week and National Volunteer Week.

And don't forget to celebrate April 25's National Good Telephone Day. This is the one day a year when you are supposed to make a special effort to answer by the third ring, avoid rude remarks, long holds, and promise not to hang up on anyone. Surely a holiday created by bill collectors.

And the months ahead hold even more reasons to celebrate. May is both National Egg Month and National Hamburger Month. It's an interesting coincidence to note that May also happens to be Stroke Awareness Month.

In June you'll find National Attitude Day, created to recognize those individuals who know who they are and what they stand for. And for those who carry their attitude a bit too far, there is also National Hermit Week.

For some reason, August turns out to be a red-letter month for lovers, as a home for Romance Awareness Month (there's that awareness thing again), backed up by National Hand-Holding Day, National Resurrect Romance Week (in case it didn't work out the first time), Don't Wait Celebrate Week, and if that isn't enough to light your fire, it is also the month of the Pyrotechnics Guild International Fireworks Convention.

And that's only the tip of the holiday iceberg. Virtually every fruit and vegetable has its day, every cause and special interest a date staked out on the calendar.

National Splurge Day, National Imperfection Week, Save the Rhino Day, National Air Conditioning Appreciation Days, Bathtub Party Day, National Whiner's Day, National Split Pea Week, Have a Bad Day Day.

There are literally hundreds of holidays vying for attention, all compressed into 365 days.

Why? What's all the hubbub about? Each of these holidays has been created by a group of individuals rallied around a cause, a belief or a way of life unique to them, and it's their way of saying, ``Hey, look at me! I'm special!'' Sort of like grown-up graffiti, tagging calendars instead of walls. Living proof that the old movie line is truer than the writer ever imagined: ``We're not a gang, we're a club.''

We are a people of contrasts, on the one hand asserting our individuality and uniqueness, while on the other having an innate need to fit in, to belong, even if we have to create our own group to belong to. It is the strength of our city, our nation. Unity in diversity. A house is made up of many unique materials - wood, glass, metal, plastic yet they all work together to form one unified structure.

The light that illuminates our world, when passed through a prism, is actually made up of a universe of colors. Some are bright, others subdued, some are seen while others do their work invisibly. And while we may prefer blue to red, or yellow to orange, together and only together they bring the full spectrum of luminance and life.

So go ahead, be aware of sleep, take a hermit to dinner, volunteer, have good phone manners, eat more eggs, revel in your uniqueness but do it as a member of the team, as an Angeleno, a Californian, an American, an Earthling. We are all in this together.