Four Mapels

Four Mapels
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts

Saturday, December 21, 2013

The Darkest Day

I started a new tradition with my kids a few years ago. In the summer, when the weather is reasonably good, I take the oldest ones up to northern Minnesota for a little camping.  We find the remotest location possible within a State Park and set up housekeeping in a tent for three or four days.  We sleep on the hard ground, we eat food that has been warmed up over a fire and we explore the area in the hopes of seeing large and potentially dangerous animals (at a distance).  I mention this here only as a prelude to my train of thought. This camping, although rustic, is far from primal - we have an easily built fire, we have mostly prepared foods, we have a car in which to drive away if the weather turns foul, but it allows my kids to see how easy life really is for us most of the time.  This last year, I brought along a flint striker and let them set about starting their own fire.  After nearly an hour of attempts there had been only a small fizzle of flame and the need for sustenance outweighed the basic skill set of building a fire without an easy spark, and the matches were brought forth.

Camping in the woods with my kids makes me think about what sort of conditions humans survived for thousands of years. A daily job of finding shelter, food, and warmth….that's it, day after day.  No house to mortgage, clean, and repair.  No cars to buy, fix, and drive.  No jobs to employ, tax, and stress us.  Just life, simple and basic....and extremely difficult.  I like to think that, if push came to shove, I could survive better than most out in the elements.   I think about what I would need first - shelter? food? and what would be the best way of obtaining these things.  I realize that this is likely a silly thought experiment given today's world, but it and the time of year that we are in lead me to the following question:


Who originally figured out the solstice timing?

There are countless festivities around this time every year - almost every culture has some celebration or feast, but who was the first?  Early neolithic cultures in England come to mind with their stone circles that have been assumed to be related to the solstices, but the builders of Stonehenge weren't necessarily first, they just built a great huge rock configuration after they had it worked out.  What fascinates me is wondering who was the first person to take a moment in their daily drudgery and say, "is it me, or are the days getting shorter?"  At what point did homo sapians advance enough to notice that the days quietly got shorter until approximately now and then slowly begin to get longer again?

Every year, as each new season happens, I have to stop and think, "did it happen like this last year?" I marvel anew at the first green sprouts, the warm breeze, the turning of the leaves, the first snow….it is as though I have no memory of the season specifics that I have lived through for the last forty years. And the sudden realization that the nights are getting ever longer catches me completely off guard when I walk outside after work and realize I am standing in twilight.  This realization that the days are getting shorter always fills me with a certain amount of gloominess.  How much more might the first people have felt this gloom slowly engulfing them?  It must have felt like the end of days at times and for many it probably was - starvation was a fairly common form of population control and the cold weather did not make survival any easier.

What I find interesting is that among most of the cultures of the world, this celebration appears to have developed independently of one another.  There was no newspaper, no television broadcast to announce a discovery of the day upon which the earth took off again for another 585 million miles around the sun, no universally agreed upon moment of relief in which the world would heave a collective sign and think, "oh, good! We are on course for another year!"   And so, each region and culture developed their own set of beliefs and story for why things are the way they are - each slightly different, but with a common thread…..light.

Regardless of the origins, the celebrations ring similar in more ways than they are different - The coming of the light, whether it be in the form of a person or the return of the sun's warmth to the earth.  They all celebrate a subtle shifting of the earth and all its inhabitants that promises renewed hope for the future.  So, this year, whether you light a candle on a menorah, decorate a Christmas tree, burn a yule log, celebrate Kwanzaa, or light a candle and say a quiet "thank-you" to the earth and sun, remember we are all in this Earth together for another spectacular 585 million mile ride around a distant sun. The darkest day is here, now let the light come in.

Peace.





Friday, December 21, 2012

To Begin Again

Happy Solstice!  Heard my husband say that to someone on the phone today and it made me smile.  We pictured this person's face on the other end of the phone trying to place that one in the context of the "Happy Holidays" we all hear this time of year.  Technically speaking, celebrating the solstice is something that goes back to when humans first started paying attention to the fact that, instead of getting shorter, the days started getting longer again.  Imagine what that must have been like for the first people who realized that the days were growing ever shorter and colder....slowly approaching the end when there will be nothing but cold and darkness.  But then, to have the pendulum slowly swing the other way? Salvation!

How frightening, to have been those first people to make the connection that the days were getting progressively shorter and darker.  I can imagine that there was probably the same sections of society that we have today: a) the doubters - "It's all a myth! This darkness thing doesn't really happen!" b) the extremists "It's dark! We are all going to die!"  c) the deists - "Pray to avoid the vengeance of god!", d) the apathetic - "Who cares that it is dark" and e) the scientist - "Wow!  I wonder why and how can I figure this out?"   All I can say is that I am very happy for the scientists who persevered and figured this mystery out. Can you imagine the news headlines with today's media if we didn't have this understanding of the axial tilt of the planet?

 In the same token, how cool to have been that first person to figure out that, because of how the earth is angled, it changes our seasons and how much light we get each day. Talk about an incredible eureka moment, but chances are very good that the first people who brought the topic up were stoned to death for being heretics to whatever god was most prevalent in the culture at the time. Of course this is all speculation because there is no record of this being written down.  There are however, standing stones and other temples that were presumed to be built in response to this natural phenomenon.  I did a quick search on Google - how is it that we ever survived without this tool? Back when we actually  had to know things or look things up....anyway, did a quick search with the phrase, 'map of the origins of religion' and stumbled upon this cool website. I had a hunch (and it appears to be relatively accurate) that most modern religions developed in areas along the equator.  This makes relative sense, if you think about it.  The equators are the least affected by the solstices and equinox  so the magic of nature is lost on them, hence encouraging them to come up with their own mystical understanding for the universe (which mainly involve humans - i.e. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism)  The northern countries (and the southern too, for that matter) were heavy into nature worship - why?....because it is incredible!  You see first hand everyday how the changes in the axial tilt of the earth in this infinite cosmos can affect very small things - the migration of birds and animals, the growth of plants, insect cycles, weather patterns.....  The sense of wonder contained within our own planet, much less this universe, is staggering.  While there are many friends and family members of mine that practice a formal religion, and I appreciate their beliefs and hope they all celebrate happy holidays, I can honestly say that I myself am caught up in the mystery of all that exists around me - from the smallest atom to the enormity of the universe.  Einstein of course, says it best, " The scientists' religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveal an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection."

Welcome light, come back in, let us start this year again.


Followers