STRAWBERRIES IN DECEMBER

Solstice; this is the most celebrated day in human history. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors were every bit as smart as we are, they just lacked the body of knowledge that we have inherited and a manageable means of assimilating information. There were only 3 or 4 cards in their deck and their mentality had to conform to that, but they understood the cycling of seasons, that spring brought new life, that summer was bountiful, that fall ushered in winter, a time to hunker down and endure. Whether or not they could count, they could make sense of how the sun’s arc slid lower and deeper in the south. The lower it dipped, the colder it got. Food was harder to come by and life itself, just making it through the day, ranged from challenging to near impossible. I don’t think they sat around like the Greeks, pondering the meaning of life. For practical purposes, they were not much different than a cluster of black birds I saw at a stop light yesterday. The wind was fierce out of the south and they were all perched in the same tree, facing into the wind, riding it out, only a meal and a drink between them and doom. Flying in that wind would have been self defeating and even birds know better. For our forbearers it was; take care of each other, be safe, find food and a safe place to sleep, take care of each other and then meet a new day. The birds had found a safe place and they were sticking together.

Prehistoric people made the connection between the sun’s low trajectory and the length of shadows. By word of mouth, oral tradition, they knew that there was one day, one particular day as the sun sank lower and lower, that it stopped sinking. Shadows stopped getting longer and in a few days, shadows began to shorten. Obviously, it would take a few months of arduous survival for long days and warm nights again but it was a cycle and they knew the cold, dark times would, in time, give way to spring and then summer. 

I can only imagine how primitive people took comfort in that knowledge; maybe an early link between trial & error and critical thinking. In the grips of winter, they knew that spring would come again. All they had to do was persevere and make do; the sun would rise higher and higher until flowers bloomed and bore fruit. The primitive part of me thinks that would be a good reason to celebrate. They knew about alcohol and they knew which plants would numb the brain, temporary relief from the stress and struggle that was normal as day and night. I suspect that was about the time people had begun attributing the mysterious to some kind of deity, religion. I think they celebrated, one way or another, being hopeful if not thankful, enjoying that short pause between the most recent crisis and what lay ahead. 

I’ll celebrate this shortest day, the longest shadow of the year as well. I have a couple of friends coming over this evening. We will feed a fire in the chiminea on my patio; something primal about fire, and feed ourselves high quality foods that our ancestors could not have imagined. When Isaac Newton was elevated to the Royal Society, UK’s National Science Academy, he remarked, “If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” If we see farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of thousands of generations of ancestors who did the heavy lifting, so we can set the thermostat to suit our comfort level; so we can have strawberries in December. I know people who take winter for granted so much so, all they do is buy a ticket and fly south. I must be weird because I tolerate cold weather, I actually like the cold. From childhood, there has always been something empowering about the crunch of snow underfoot and seeing your breath on a frosty morning. I don’t have to hope for good weather, or fly away; I hope I wake up tomorrow and my friends are all healthy and well, that we get together and celebrate something, anything that feels right and does no harm.