Summer!

It's the first day of summer, or "midsummer", which makes no sense if you think about it for more than a minute. How can it be the "first" and the "mid" all at once?

Wiktionary is not much help:
midsummer (plural midsummers)
1-The period around the summer solstice; about 21st June in the northern hemisphere.
2-The first day of summer
3-The middle of summer.

Well, it is the longest day of the year. Of that we can be sure. Today, they found water (ice, really) on Mars. It's HOT even in San Francisco. The Mississippi is flooding, the West is drying out, and yet somehow we all keep on keepin' on.

This seems to be the week of spending money. The car needed repairs and a 90,000 mile tuneup. The windows needed shades. The camera broke and had to be replaced. Oh, and on top of it all, we are having a wedding! which has to be the most expensive thing to do in the world. New clothes, catering, cake, rental furniture, flowers, plants, extra house cleaning, etc. But we are spending with joy in our hearts, because, my goodness, who ever expected to be having a wedding! And our family members will be here and our hearts will be full.

Springing into action

The sun is crossing our celestial equator! The equinox is a magical day - legend has it that on the spring equinox you can balance an egg on its end. Snopes tells me that this legend is false, and is linked with all the egg business of spring (decorating, hiding, putting in baskets, etc.) A little more research reveals this:

As reported by Gardner in the Skeptical Inquirer (May/June 1996, page 8), the legend was born with an article penned by Annalee Jacoby in the March 19, 1945 issue of Life magazine. Ms. Jacoby was on assignment in China at that time, when she witnessed a peculiar Chinese ritual. According to Chinese legend, it is easier to stand an egg on end on what they call the first day of spring (which is in early February). The Chinese legend, unfortunately, has an uncertain origin, though it is propagated through old books about Chinese rituals. Ms. Jacoby was in the capital city of Chunking on Li Chun when a crowd of people came to balance eggs. It must have been quite a sight, and so she wrote about it for Life.

Evidently, the United Press picked up the story and promptly sent it out over the wire. At that moment, a legend was born.

What's funny about this is that Ms. Jacoby evidently reported that the event occurred on the first day of spring, but it was never said (or else it was conveniently forgotten) that the first day of spring in China is a month and half before the first day of spring as recognized by Americans! The legend now states that you can only stand an egg on end at the equinox, yet the legend started because the Chinese were standing them up six weeks earlier. Ironically, the very basis of this legend is wrong!

(from Bad Astronomy)

I enjoy reading about the pagan springtime celebrations from which our spring holidays originate.

Ostara (sometimes spelled OEstera, or Easter), the Germanic fertility Goddess, was associated with human and crop fertility. On the spring equinox, she mated with the solar god and conceived a child that would be born 9 months later on December 21: Yule, the winter solstice.

Things to love

Barbara on a barstool


Sidewalk tiles in Benicia


Art Deco tiles on a storefront


Spring is abloom - we have turned a seasonal corner

Happy 08

Some resolutions, for a change:

I'm going to start making arty things
I'm going to take the bus to work, instead of driving
I'm going to get the craft room organized
I'm going to creatively organize all of our new spaces at home
I'm going to talk more to my family on the phone
I'm going to have more dinner parties

I don't think I've made resolutions for many years, but this year, I feel inspired. I think all of these things will shine some energy on my more "usual" intentions, like winning a quartet competition, exercising more, being more efficient at work, making new friends, etc...

Yearend

The year is coming to an end - what a busy one it's been for us. The trip to Sicily and Rome, the kitchen/house remodel - rarely have we ever had a year where we made so many decisions and spent so much money! And this weekend we celebrate 25 years of coupledom. We joke that despite the remodel, we are still together. I think we collaborated pretty well, although it's the little things that get tiresome, like today at Home Despot, when we couldn't seem to agree on a single pull for a closet door. But in the end, we did find one that worked.

Last night we saw the film "Atonement", that seems to already be on many short lists for best movie of the year. It was exceptional. I really would like to read the book now, and see how they managed to capture the story. I'm reading a book called "A History of Love", and often find myself thinking about whether or not one could make it into a movie. The characters are so compelling, but the story happens in memory, not in action. I think it must be hard to make a movie where at first glance, you'd think it'd have to be all voice-over. That's why they do "flashbacks". There is one particular scene in "Atonement" that was so visually astonishing and terrible and wonderful all at once: the scene on the beach. I can't get it out of my head.

The word "Atonement" makes me think of e.e. cummings and his poem about loneliness. It goes something like this:

a
leaf

f
a
l
l
s

l
one
l
iness

I love how the number 1 is all over the place in that poem, and how loneliness is all about I-ness, One-ness. At-one-ment is a similar word.