Much of what we do over the winter solstice reflects a fascination with the cosmos. Take, for instance, the popularity of the poinsettia plants that appear in stores for only this season. Brought from Mexico by our first ambassador there, Dr. Joel Poinsett (I\u2019ve visited his historic home in Charleston, S.C.), its blossoms delight us because they\u2019re the shape of the stars.
\nAnd of course the lit Christmas tree that has become the centerpiece in many of our homes originated with Martin Luther when, as the story goes, he was inspired by the sight of tall evergreens against the starry sky. So he cut a fir, brought it home, and placed lighted candles on its branches for his family.
\nPlus there\u2019s the image of Santa\u2019s ride against the night sky: an incarnation of a Scandinavian god who rode through the world at midwinter bringing rewards and punishment.
\nPerhaps we pay attention to the starry sky of this season because there are more hours of darkness, and the fallen leaves have opened up great swaths of empty space.
\nFor as Lewis Mumford suggests: probably we humans were sky conscious and season conscious long before we were self-conscious. Thus, in this season of shortest days and longest nights, perhaps something in our DNA connects us back to our ancestors who shivered in the cold and darkness for far longer in human time than we\u2019ve been cozy and warm during our long winter nap.
\nMaybe our dreams of a white Christmas are memories of that reflective \u2018aha\u2019 during the last Ice Age \u2018when something within humans turned back on itself and took an infinite leap forward,\u2019 as Teilhard de Chardin put it.
\nIn that threshold moment, all human potential became possibility, from crops to civilization to spacecraft.
\nWith that in mind and in honor of the season, Milt and I bundled up to sit outside in the cold darkness of a predawn in order to watch a lunar eclipse. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 As my mug of coffee kicked in, I suddenly remembered that I have a spotting scope. Looking through it called forth a WOW! that I couldn\u2019t suppress, even in my concern over awakening sleeping neighbors. WOWI indeed!!
\nAnd I thought of Galileo turning his spy glass from enemy ships on the horizon to the lights dotting the heavens\u2026and how he confirmed Aristarchus\u2019s observation, made back in 280 B.C., that the sun, not the earth, is the center of our planetary system.
\nAristarchus had figured that out while watching a lunar eclipse! From the size of the earth\u2019s shadow on the moon, he deduced that the sun had to be much larger than the earth, and, therefore, it made no sense for the sun to revolve around a smaller body. Thus he put the sun in the center, with the planets in orbiting around it.
\nWe\u2019ve been trying to live into that realization ever since! We still say the sun rises and sets, while knowing full WE are doing the moving. Perhaps it is easier at the winter solstice to grasp the notion, the motion of our earth orbiting its star, especially if\/when we can take time to stand still, stand still in the starry darkness and make a Christmas wish.
\nFor long before this season became about enhancing retailers\u2019 bottom line, or giving a \u2018vitamin shot to Wall Street,\u2019 and even before it was about the birth of the Son, the winter solstice celebrated the wonder of the Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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