Date: Fri 19-Jun-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-summer-soltice

Full Text:

ED INK: The Sun's Big Show

When the long stretch of overcast, rainy weather finally broke midweek this

week, we took the first opportunity we had (lunch) to get out of the office

and walk around in the sunshine. It seemed like the clouds had drawn back like

a curtain on the sun's big show.

There will be more sunlight beating down on the Northern Hemisphere in the

next few days than there is at any other time of year. This is when our part

of the planet bows toward its life-giving star. This year, the summer solstice

occurs, appropriately, on Sun day. On that day the sun will rise at 5:20 am

and set at 8:31 pm, giving us more than 15 hours of sunlight -- if the weather

cooperates. Counting twilight to twilight adds another hour to that. At 12:56

pm on Sunday, the sun will climb as high in the sky as it ever gets.

The word solstice comes down to us from the Latin solstitium , which means

"sun standing still." Of course nothing in the universe -- not the sun, not

the earth, not our busy minds chasing thoughts of the sun and earth -- ever

stands still. But we enjoy the illusion of a solar pause at the northern

terminus of its endless pacing up and down the horizon because it gives us a

point of reference, however fleeting, in the cosmic flux.

Who knows whether the sun feels the least perturbation from our existence; it

is 109 times the size of earth and nearly 94 million miles distant at this

time of year. The earth absorbs only about two billionths of the sun's total

energy output, and yet this meager portion sustains all life. For that we are

grateful. We intend to show our appreciation to old Sol on Sunday by getting

up and going out early and by lingering outside in the evening until the last

of the twilight fades.