Declaring Independence

Next week marks one of my favorite holidays of the calendar year—Independence Day.  I love this holiday because it is typically a day filled with simple good cheer.  I find it an easy holiday to celebrate.  The weather is usually warm and pleasant.  Friends and family gather around barbeques, lakes, and pools to laugh and simply be together.  It is an uncomplicated day filled with little family drama or outsized expectations, like many holidays can be.  On the surface, the 4^th of July is purely a day to have fun, watch some fireworks, eat, drink, and be merry.

In years past I’ve spent the morning of the 4^th with 60,000 of my closest friends, running the largest 10K road race in the world.  With 150,000 spectators cheering on the runners, the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta has always been a festive way to kick off the holiday.  This year family will be traveling across the country to spend the day with us, and we’ll enjoy a far more peaceful day lazing on the lake instead of running the streets with a mob.

As Independence Day draws closer, I watch my 3-year old daughter discover her own independence.  In fact, as I watch her, the term “independence” has taken on a whole new meaning.  Before I was a parent, independence was a clear definition, one I always associated with fighting the British and declaring a self-ruling republic.  But being a parent forces one to look at life through a different lens.  I can see that to a child, independence is something they covet from their parents.  My daughter’s first strung-together sentence was, “I do it myself!”  A clear sign that she needed some independence from me.   The need is so strong that if she is not following my directions, all I have to do is the time-proven method of counting to three.  I always assumed parents did this with the threat of some punishment.  But for my own child, the threat is simply that if she doesn’t comply by the time I reach three, I will do the task—whatever that may—for her.  She almost always complies before I reach three, the need for independence far outpacing her need to ignore my instructions.  I’m sure that as she grows older, her need for independence will become even clearer.

To be independent is not only something children in our society strive for.  Independence means something different at each age in our lives, for each person, each religion and nationality.  Independence and the freedom it offers means something different for Jewish Americans, African Americans, Native Americans and countless others.  Independence means something different to a 10-year old than it does to an 80-year old.  Some are just learning to stretch their wings and declare their independence, while on the opposite spectrum our elderly are clutching their independence tightly, unwilling to have their wings clipped.

Each Independence Day I’m always slightly surprised by how proud we are as a nation to be independent, even if it is so casually celebrated at a barbeque and fireworks show.  It shouldn’t surprise me, but 236 years later, I find that becoming, and maintaining, an independent nation is still something worth celebrating.  These freedoms trickle all the way down to my 3-year old, able to find and define her own independence.  There are many freedoms to celebrate this 4^th of July, large and small, and finding and appreciating each one of those is our privilege.

Previously published in "The Star," Grand Coulee, WA.  June 27, 2012

A moment to stand still

Next week is the summer solstice, denoting the longest day of the year and the official start of summer.  For some cultures this is a day of marked celebration.  In our own country it seems that many years this day can be passed by with a casual nod from the local weatherman mentioning the peak of daylight hours for the year.

When I was in my 20’s I spent a summer working as an environmental researcher in Sweden.  Before that time, celebrating the summer solstice was not something on my mental list of noteworthy holidays, but in Sweden it is a national holiday and one with supreme cultural importance.  For a country that is very dark much of the year, the general populace tends to transform into a sun-worshiping frenzy for the brief summer months.  As the sun doesn’t ever quite disappear except for an extended period of hazy twilight, this makes some sense.  For a transient visitor like myself, I enjoyed watching people bask so thoroughly in something that I had typically taken for granted.  Their simple joy was infectious.  When the solstice came I joined in the masses and made my way out to the countryside to stay up through the sun-soaked night, weave a crown of wildflowers on my head and dance around the Maypole. 

Since that time, I have always noted the summer solstice with fondness and an interest I didn’t have before.  It seems to me that such a day deserves some attention.  After all, we owe much to the sun. 

The term “solstice” is a Latin term that literally means the sun “stands still” and traditionally was used as a term to define an exact moment in time.  Today we use it to define the day that has the longest period of daylight. 

Ancient cultures used the summer solstice as a moment to pause and celebrate life in between the busy times of planting and harvest.  Most societies tended to focus on celebrating the sign of fertility in the earth and the immense power the sun held over their livelihoods.  They rejoiced with feasts and yearly rituals, such as leaping over bonfires to determine how high the crops would grow.  The Druids celebrated the solstice as the day of the wedding of Heaven and Earth and even today the summer solstice is considered a “lucky” wedding day.  Most celebrations of the summer solstice tend to pre-date Christianity but aren’t wholly pagan in nature.  Christians placed the feast day of St. John the Baptist on the day of his birth, a few days after the solstice, instead of the more typical feast day celebration for saints on the day of his death. 

In modern times, countries around the world have varied celebrations.  In Austria a flotilla of ships sail down the Danube, large bonfires are lighted all around Quebec, Denmark, Hungary, Germany and Estonia, while Italy and Ireland celebrate with fireworks.  In our own country, celebrations tend to congregate in cities with large populations of immigrants from Northern European countries such as New York, Minneapolis, Chicago and Santa Barbara.

Perhaps the largest celebration takes place at the great monument of Stonehenge in England.  British subjects are allowed access onto the site, which is normally roped off, on the days of the summer and winter solstice.  Perfectly aligned towards both the rising and setting sun on the solstice, the site has enormous religious, astrological, and spiritual significance in both modern and ancient times.

Another ancient structure constructed to highlight the interaction between earth and sun is the Mayan Temple of Kukulcan, which signals the precise moment where the sun “stands still.”  At that moment, if viewed from above, one would be able to see the south and west sides cast in shadow and the north and east sides blazing in the sun.

This year, the sun will “stand still” on June 20^th at 4:09pm PST.  If you find yourself aware of the time next week, take a moment to stand still and be thankful for the bountiful gifts the sun provides us before the earth’s axis tilts again, sending us back towards shorter days and longer nights.
Previously published in "The Star," Grand Coulee, Washington. June 13, 2012