Calendar Crazy -- Part 3
the answer is in the stars
HISTORY / TIME-KEEPING
I was a severe contrarian near the end of the 20th Century and the fuss about Y2K. While there was a narrow set of computer software that had designated the year as two digits many years ago, that was not a situation that was cataclysmic. It was true that if we consider the years as two digits, 00 is indeed less than 99 and hence, time would go backward. In such a case, figuring out the date for tomorrow can be tricky around midnight. At the time though it seemed there was way too much hyperbole about the consequences. Once this foolish story leaked out to the non-tech crowd, a conspiracy was inevitable. A remember an individual who I felt had that rare COMBINATION of both high intellect AND common sense share his opinion akin to “even if there is a problem around midnight, why not just bring extra people in that evening and pay for one night of overtime to restart things. In at least some cases that may be all that is required?”
While it never became mainstream thinking, there was also a minority evangelical Christian association with the end times which, on its face, was incredibly silly. First of all, there was never anything special about the year 2000. Now is as good a time as any to point out that while most of us call this year 2021, we are also in the Jewish year 5782. I wonder if people will be up in arms in 218 years in that ultra-significant year 6000. I am just relieved that the Chinese years being associated with a different animal in a twelve-year loop hopefully doesn’t cause folks to fret each time the year of the ox approaches. We cannot reliably nail down the actual year of Christ’s birth so the BCE and AD thing is still a bit arbitrary. Furthermore, as this multi-part story will unravel, there is even the matter of conveniently skipped days instituted by the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in lieu of the Julian calendar. I conclude that, like many things, when we engage our frontal lobe and just give it a bit of consideration, it makes all of the “what-ifs” about Y2K seem like grounds for lobotomies. Because people are so easily led to anger, the Julian to Gregorian adjustment even led to riots in Britain in the mid-1700s. Quite similarly to the march to metric, the British kept to a different calendar longer than most. “Everybody else is wrong and only we are right”. Doesn’t sound like a great plan but the process seems popular with many and does repeat itself. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. With such context, the foolishness of Brexit is no surprise. Here is a wrap-up of Y2K hysteria published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) many years ago if you are interested.
I think that it is no coincidence that the concepts of a calendar emerged as societies began to settle down and pursue agriculture. Being able to understand the seasons would be critical to managing the planting and the harvest. The historical record seems to validate this theory. For those that have been reading my posts for a bit, a pattern continues to emerge. Homo Sapiens emerge around 2,000,000 years ago. They spread across the world via migration but breakthroughs in how they lived really do not emerge in earnest until the hunter-gatherers settle down and become farmers around 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. Even that was somewhat of an accident since farming only commences when people wander through an area long enough to realize there are wild grasses that prevail where they are wandering and they are edible. Our ancestors would, however, share with us three inspirations from outside of this world that would shape their lives. While they did not understand the intricacies just yet, the stars of the night sky, the sun shining on their faces during the day and illuminating their world, and the moon at night on its 29 1/2 day pattern of new to the full moon on a repetitive cycle would have been the inspirations of their world. Turning to those phenomena to guide them about the passing of time is not surprising in hindsight. They would provide a very good start to the cycles of their world. Here are the three things in my mind that would have captured the attention of a caveman.
Finally, in a hostile world, it is hard to imagine that anything was as likely to inspire awe as the heavens. Factor in an occasional shooting star, the appearance, and disappearance of planets, and once in a while an eclipse and it seems pre-destined that the sky would have been a major influencer from the beginning. I must admit that for me I still can just soak it in on a clear night. In fact, in deference to my adopted home, it is the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) that I place in the header of my daily story. The photograph that is displayed was taken in Northern Minnesota. Here is a great song for the inspiration the sky can bring. The imagery of the accompanying video is inspiring also. I think it captures the wonder of looking upward as well as looking around at our natural world. Hope to see you tomorrow. If there is one takeaway from tonight, it is to try and go for a walk for 29-30 straight days and take in the complete cycle of the moon. It is really fun to watch the cycle.
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