Monday, June 21, 2010

The light changes again.

Summer Solstice seems medieval and silly now right, all about pagans and bonfires and weird European gods. But it's important. It is an event of the whole planet. The earth is tilting farthest to the sun. We are as close to the sun as we get. The entire Northern Hemisphere is recognizing the longest day of the year.

It's a halfway point in our year. Sensing the end of the seasons, remembering winters that are coming. It inflicts a sense of urgency in our summer, even though summer is just beginning. Solstice reminds us that we are at our peak, and things will need to be harvested and completed, just like winter solstice tells us the darkness will be lifting. So hurry the fuck up and start that yard project. You want to go to Canada, now's the time. You want to learn how to ride your bike in busy traffic, or go to that old fort by Toledo, or have that backyard party? Do it now.

And why did our ancestors celebrate this, not knowing what it actually meant in numbers? They would have had even more urgency, since winter was a time of death and starvation and illness. They would have prayed to their gods to make everything grow, and for babies before it got cold. To extend the light as long as possible so they didn't have to huddle in the cold and be wet all the time . A futile gesture, but an important discipline, for those who wanted to survive. Modern Day us seems to have forgotten the more literal lesson.

I'm okay with that. Maybe we don't need to know it. Its not like everything medieval is really awesome. It's good to forget fear and just relax in the light, and appreciate it's glare. Get some sun on our pasty forearms and cover up our scars with freckles.

So it should now just be a day of appreciation that it's not gloomy all the time, or rainy, or dark. Thank your gods that it's not shit weather all the time. You get to wear sleeveless things, and feels breezes on your arms. You get to forget the harshness of jeans for a while. You can walk casually, instead of blindly bustle to your car. You don't have to worry about getting into accidents all the time while driving.

And don't spend your time inside working all the time, cause you only have so many summers left. We are eventually going to tilt too far and fall in the sun. No, I have no idea if that's true. It's probably not. But I could have left it, and in the back of your head you would have believed it, which is the other important thing to remember today.

7 comments:

  1. wise words. lovely photos. as usual.

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  2. I really enjoyed the most atmospheric photos, and you mediatation around them was thoughtful and well-considered. Now, to the garden!!

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  3. I love graffiti and brick. Especially together. :)

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  4. Awesome photos. Making me wish I was out of work and sitting on pavement drinking some root beer :) NOT HERE

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  5. "Cover up our scars with freckles." Yum. I want to swim in that a minute. You know, you really do make me smile and sigh aloud when I read these.

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  6. Annah, gosh I want root beer now. I want to keep like secret kegs of root beer in these places.

    Ells, you wouldn't believe the amount of scars I have that need covering up. No seriously, my ankles look covered in purple spots right now.

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