On Right Use Of The Season

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Trinity Episcopal Church
44 East Market St.
Bethlehem PA 18018-5989
610-867-4741

On Right Use Of The Season
Fr. Nick Knisely - Written for Newsletter, August 2001

Looking outside my office window and watching the shimmering heat rise from the macadam parking lot, I just realized that the Dog Days of Summer are upon us. The term "Dog Days of Summer" comes from the time of the Roman Empire and refers to the twenty or so days of the year prior to the moment when Sirius (the Dog Star) appears on the eastern horizon before dawn (its helical rising). The Romans thought that the star Sirius added its heat and fire to that of the Sun and that's what caused the heat of summer. It isn't the reason of course, but it is a lovely image and gives us pause to think about where the season of summer comes from, and how we are to make use of it. God gave us the gift of the seasons, and now that we are being further removed from our agricultural roots, summer is no longer the season of outdoor work, but is becoming a season of an entirely different kind of toil.

I'm not actually sure why we take our vacations during the summer. Maybe it's because that's when school traditionally lets out and our parents were able to take us on adventures that weren't possible during the school year. Whatever the reason, though, one of the high points of the hot summer days is our family's yearly pilgrimage to the beach. This year Karen, Kenney, and I are going to get to go to the shore twice. We had one trip already, a family gathering in New Jersey at the same house my mother always rented, partly in honor of her memory and partly to have a chance to get together before my brother the missionary goes to Europe for four years. The next trip is going to be with dear old friends of ours, who we met in a church choir that we all sang in when we lived in Delaware, and we're all looking forward to seeing each other again.

Kenney learned how to surf the waves on her "boogie" board this year. I bought her that board six years ago, when we first took her to the beach house, and I used to pull her on it through the tidal pools that form on the beach as the tide goes out. This is the first time that she decided that she was going to go far enough out in the water that she would be able to catch a wave and "surf" back to the shore. She had a blast. I was a nervous wreck. I spent the whole day standing in the water watching her, making sure that she didn't get in over her head-literally.

While I was standing in the water watching Kenney play, I began to notice the way the water would foam and swirl around my feet as the last bits of wave made their way to the shore. I found myself fascinated by the chaotic motions of the sand as the water stirred up the grains floating by. I wondered how long and how effectively the almost timeless motion of waves crashing on the beach would take to stir up and mix the together all the complicated parts that make up the rich broth of seawater. Then I looked up and saw the moon hanging just above the horizon in the afternoon sky and I was reminded of the role that moon plays in causing tides. I found myself picturing the two standing bulges of water that stand stationary on the earth, always pointing at the moon and under which the rotation of the earth gives rise to the twice daily phenomenon of high and low tide. I wondered how effective the tides were at mixing all the chemicals and compounds which are found in seawater and which are so crucial to sustaining life on earth.

Once I started thinking about the tides, I found myself wondering about the icy moon Callisto, that orbits the gas giant Jupiter. I wondered about the cold oceans of water that we think are likely to exist under its ice covered surface. Just as the moon causes tides on Earth, I wondered how much more extreme the tides on Callisto, caused by Jupiter's stronger gravitational tug, would be, and if they would stir up the waters under the ice and create the same sort of environment out of which life arose here on earth. Then in a moment, my thoughts took me leaping out hundreds and thousands of light years further to the many extra-solar planets that we are almost daily discovering in the sky. These large Jupiter sized objects probably have moons orbiting about them as well, and they might likely have water under their surface too, and might just as likely have the necessary conditions for life like ours.

-Nick+

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Trinity Episcopal Church
44 East Market St.
Bethlehem PA 18018-5989
610-867-4741