Red Bluff Daily News

April 22, 2017

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Easterisearlythisyear;theformulafor determining it places it as early as possible, essentially at the beginning of Spring, a perfect convergence. We take the seasons for granted, but for preliterate people the sea- sons were important markers for the various cycles of life. Lastyearwehadtheunique experience of sampling all four of the seasons within a three- week period. We left Red Bluff in early June when it was Spring here. We landed in La Paz, Bo- livia two days later where it was Fall; in two weeks fall turned to Winter while we were in Machu Picchu, and when we returned home in early July it was Summer in Red Bluff. We understand that the four seasons are a result of the fact that the Earth does not revolve around the sun in a circle, but in an ellipse. If you remem- ber geometry, ellipses have two foci while a circle has one. The sun is one of the two foci, and therefore our distance from the sun is not constant throughout the year. Furthermore, we also know that the spin of the Earth is not at a perpendicular to the plane of its orbit; it actually wobbles like a top, and so for a period of that wobble the up- per half of the planet is closer to the sun than the lower half; for other parts of the wobble the reverse is true. The com- bination of the elliptical or- bit and the wobble produce the four seasons. We also know the reason there are four seasons and not some other number has to do with the length of our days; the ancients figured out there were two times during the year when there was an equal amount of daylight and dark- ness; these two times have be- come known as the Spring and Fall equinoxes. After the Spring equinox, about March 21st, the days become longer until the longest day, which is the first day of Summer. Then the days shorten until the Fall equinox, about September 21st, and then shorten even more until the shortest day, which is the first day of Winter. While we were at Machu Picchu the first day of Winter was celebrated by a combina- tion of new age folks and tra- ditional indigenous religions. The traditional religions were celebrating the return of the sun from its journey north; part of the tradition was the concept that the celebration was necessary to remind the sun of its appointed rounds. The new age participants were merging themselves into the great rhythms of the spirit of life. It's difficult to comprehend that early, pre-literate, man felt he could influence the cli- mate through rituals and sac- rifices; we see that as fool- ish. Yet, so-called post-modern man now has trouble acknowl- edging that he has, indeed, in- fluenced the climate, but not as he had anticipated. With over six billion of us on this planet, we were bound to have our influence. It is also hard to imagine the patience of the genera- tions of preliterate people who handed down their memories of the changing seasons, cor- related the length of the day with recurring events, and watched as plants and animals repeated the cycles of their lives. It is a miracle that as a race we could do that; given the short attention span we dem- onstrate these days, it is truly a miracle. We take the seasons for granted, using our calendars to see the date, mark appoint- ments, remember birthdays and other special occasions. We accept the certainty of the daily sunrise, the phases of the moon, the tides, and the sea- sons. I think that in doing so, we may have lost some of the marvel of the creation we in- habit. For preliterate man there was continual mystery and suspense along with dan- gers. He grappled for explana- tions and came up with what seemed to make sense at the time. Our short attention span may protect us from remem- bering the latest sound bite or political spin, but a good attention span was neces- sary when nothing was writ- ten down and there was no in- stant retrieval of information via the Internet or Google. I suppose if we actually listened to all we have going on around us we would suffer from over- stimulation and evaporate as our circuitry overheated; maybe we have evolved, af- ter all. I find as I have matured, I pay more attention to the sea- sons than I did when younger. One reason is the amount of travel we have had the op- portunity to do, giving us a chance to see seasonal differ- ences from place to place. Our three children live in places where they have a "real" winter, and our visits subject us to an immediate 40 plus de- gree temperature shift when we disembark the plane. Another reason for paying more attention, I believe, is that as we mature we have a greater sense of the context of our lives; we have time to re- flect on our lives, and we come to appreciate the green shoot from the bulb that pushes up through the soil, the birds that migrate through, and the changes in daylight. In the northern hemisphere, many of us associate the ad- vent of Spring with Easter, the resurrection event that has changed many lives. It is the season of rebirth, awakenings, portends of sum- mer, promises of new crops and longer days. This season has a regener- ative effect on us. Locally we see the fields of wild flowers, the greening of lawns, the re- turn of leaves on shade trees, the fullness of creeks, the op- portunity to golf and fish or to hike in Lassen Park, to enjoy the lushness that precedes the dryness of summer. When I was in the school business, Spring meant the end of one school year and planning for the next. It was filled with lots of ac- tivity complicated by the sup- ply of new hormones in middle school students. Although I did enjoy Spring then, at this point in my life I relish in it. Editor's note: This column was originally published in March 2008. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. JoeHarrop Spring is a season of hope and promises Cartoonist's take The other day, I was riding on the subway when I heard a commotion behind me. People started running around in the car, and a young girl slammed into my seat as if she was flee- ing some kind of murder- ous thug. The reason for the panic was a crack-head who had decided to beat up on a young, innocent man who happened to be riding on the same car. The poor young man who just happened to cross paths with the addict was bleeding from the forehead, but was helped off of the train and seemed to be okay. Physically, at least. I can't vouch for his peace of mind, or discount any nightmares he might have well into the night. This incident, though brief, stayed with me long after the train doors closed and we were safely home. I posted about it on Facebook, and the way that people reacted had a lot to do with the way they approached drug addiction. Those who had either suf- fered from addiction and then recovered, or who had fam- ily members who were in the throes of addiction, were an- gry. One old friend from grade school posted some searing crit- icisms, a few of which were un- necessarily personal and vitri- olic, and unfriended me. Many others were in agree- ment that just because some- one is an addict, that doesn't mean we need to ignore the fact that they are capable of hate- ful, criminal, destructive be- havior that destroys count- less other lives. They were sym- pathetic to the idea that even though we can feel sorry for the abuser (even though many of us refuse to call it a "disease") it was more important to rec- ognize the pain of the innocent victims, like the young man on that train. We have a society that is wak- ing up to the scourge of addic- tion, and that is a good thing. We have programs for those who cannot rip the heavy chains of addiction from their necks, and who fall, and rise, and fall even further even af- ter mountains have been moved to help them. We show concern for the afflicted, even though in many cases that affliction was self-imposed. In other words, we are a com- passionate society that tries to help our loved ones and strang- ers escape the hell of addiction. That's good, because the al- ternative is losing generations to. Not even a heartless, bitter woman like yours truly thinks that is a good idea. But while we are so con- cerned with the addicts, let's also pause for a moment to con- sider what we owe to those who are the silent victims of the scourge: Families, friends, and strangers whose only crime is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Frankly, I'm tired of the do- gooders preaching to me to shut up about my anger at these destroyers of peace. I'm fed up with the holier-than-thou masses who shout down at me from their mountains of superi- ority, giving me lessons in how hard it is to shake an addiction. I'm over the people who keep saying "it's a disease, dammit" and plug up their ears when I say "a self-inflicted one, dam- mit." I'm even willing to bow to the experts on addiction and con- cede that there is some truth to the science of addiction, be- cause I have seen firsthand how normal humans can be biolog- ically transformed into hollow- eyed zombies looking only for their next fix. There is an al- chemy there, a change worked upon the body and the spirit by these toxins. But I'm not going to be silent when I see humans turn into animals and prey on other in- nocent beings, or bow my head and pray for their redemption. I will pray, all right, that the vic- tim is made whole and brought to a place of peace and safety. Only then will I have some consideration left over, a few beads on my rosary, for the suf- fering, victimizing addict. And if that guarantees for me a place in purgatory, or hell, so be it. Christine Flowers is an attorney and a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, and can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com. Christine Flowers On addiction, don't forget victims of the addicted Sounding off Alookatwhatreadersaresayingincommentsonourwebsiteandonsocialmedia. Firstputupsignthatsay"Sweepersare Coming" then the day they are sweeping put this one up (reading "Sweepers are Here"). Peggy Cogar: On possibility of off street parking rules to accommodate street sweepers Awesome job, to my great niece Juliana Mejia. Sherry Benson: On local youth being honored as students of the month by the Elks Lodge Joe Harrop StateandNational Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558- 3160, governor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507 Cannon House Of- fice Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Kamala Har- ris, 501 I St., Ste. 7-600, Sacra- mento 95814, 916 448-2787, fax 202 228-3865 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Rich- ard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, Kris- tina Miller, 824-7033 YOUR OFFICIALS Christine Flowers Chip Thompson, Editor How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: Daily News 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, April 22, 2017 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A5

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