Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Sunstruck

I watched the sun “go down” last night, bright as a new copper coin. While I tossed and turned in fitful sleep, hot even with the air conditioner running, earth spun on Her axis, turning to Helios’ glare the Kansas wheat fields, the formidable and chilly Rockies, the Northwest forests.

While I dreamed strange dreams, the sun rose high over the Pacific islands, over the commuters of Tokyo, over China and the Gobi Desert of Mongolia.

Now I drive my familiar route to work, squinting through the heat and haze of an East Coast summer morning. Beyond my eastern shoulder, the sun has “returned” and rides high, a god indeed, crucial for life but deadly to mortal gaze. Europe is going to bed now and night is dark and deep over Australia and Arabia.

Ancients pondered the mystery of the sun’s journey, spun intricate tales to account for its drop into the west every night and rebirth in the east every morning.

Now science has the explanation: merely the spinning of the Earth-ball around a hot gas cloud. And we hardly pay any attention anymore.

5 comments:

Amar Mandair said...

Don't you just love those moments!
Sunrise is my favorite time of day, it's always another opportunity to start fresh!

Eastcoastdweller said...

I do love those moments, Empress! I love my little house snuggled at the wood's edge but sometimes I daydream about living on some high hill somewhere, where I could be awakened by the sun as it arose and see it drop behind the horizon at night.

Amar Mandair said...

Now see that would be ideal, living on a high hill - you would experience the beginning and end of a day like none other!

Eastcoastdweller said...

But hilltops, where the wind blows more fiercely, can be very cold places in winter.

Amar Mandair said...

Well see that's when you ski downhill to warmer places and when the weather gets better you can enjoy a great trek uphill! Really it's a win-win situation.