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June 21: Solstice
Jun. 21st, 2010 09:07 pmAt sunset, I went out across the road, met my friend the rabbit and scared him back into the brush, picked a heaping handful of blackberries and devoured them right away. They were juicy and a little tart. Occasionally the prehistoric thrum of the cicadas rose above the traffic noise. It was still very hot, but when there's a breeze and the sun isn't beating down, it's tolerable. I could see the horizon between two hospital towers; it was the color of a peach zinnia in my dad's garden.
I visualize the solar cycle as two pendulums with the same anchor point, but swinging in opposite directions. One pendulum is day and the other is night. The two extremes of the arc they follow represent the extremes of day or night length. When the day pendulum reaches the "long" end of the arc, the night pendulum is at the "short" end, and that's the summer solstice. Then they reverse direction. When they meet at the bottom of the arc, the called the equilibrium position that's the equinox, and then when they reach the opposite ends, that's winter solstice. I don't know if I saw this idea somewhere, or it just developed in my head, but it works for me because of that moment right at the end of the pendulum's swing. That moment when it pauses, preparing to swing back, and time stops. I've felt that moment.
From now on, the days will become shorter. However, temperatures will continue to rise for a few months, the same way that it's hotter in early evening than it is at noon, even though the sun is less direct — because the earth heats and cools slowly, and it takes awhile to build up and start really retaining the heat of the summer sun.
I visualize the solar cycle as two pendulums with the same anchor point, but swinging in opposite directions. One pendulum is day and the other is night. The two extremes of the arc they follow represent the extremes of day or night length. When the day pendulum reaches the "long" end of the arc, the night pendulum is at the "short" end, and that's the summer solstice. Then they reverse direction. When they meet at the bottom of the arc, the called the equilibrium position that's the equinox, and then when they reach the opposite ends, that's winter solstice. I don't know if I saw this idea somewhere, or it just developed in my head, but it works for me because of that moment right at the end of the pendulum's swing. That moment when it pauses, preparing to swing back, and time stops. I've felt that moment.
From now on, the days will become shorter. However, temperatures will continue to rise for a few months, the same way that it's hotter in early evening than it is at noon, even though the sun is less direct — because the earth heats and cools slowly, and it takes awhile to build up and start really retaining the heat of the summer sun.