night | My Life with NF2

Yesterday at breakfast, Megan and I started discussing some of the different college courses we had taken during our years of studies. Old college days have been in thought since this weekend marked Marcia’s college graduation. Our “baby sister” now a college graduate! 🙂

In the course of our breakfast chat, Megan and I discussed our science classes. I had taken Environmental Science (being a Business major, this was the easiest to comprehend–bonus, the shortest labs!) and Megan had taken a course from her college that was equivalent in study to my Environmental class. We both concluded that the study of rocks was not our keen interest. We ventured to other areas of nature…the oceans and heavens, and it made me think back to the last summer I lived at home (San Luis Valley), before permanently moving to Denver that Fall to finish school and work.

Cosmos.

To cap off my Gen-Eds, I took several online courses from Red Rocks Community College. Besides my Humanities curriculum and online discussions, my next favorite that summer was Astronomy. Being in the science department, this also meant labs. But I didn’t mind the labs. From my parents backyard, on clear evenings with little or no moon, the heavens sparkled!! I could spend hours gazing at the stars, trying to find constellations in my Dad’s telescope or drawing the phases of the moon. One couldn’t do that living in Denver.

Growing up, we sisters would take blankets out on clear summer evenings and lay out on the grass. We would talk about life–funny stories, the little insignificantly seeming things that back then got on our nerves, fears or dreams–and stare up at the sky. I remember feeling so small…one can’t even see the whole expanse of the sky without turning your head. I know the ocean is deep, unmeasurable, but the heavens are unfathomable.

Northern Lights Show.

Once in junior high, I was getting ready for bed. On summer evenings, it was typical of us to leave our windows open as to get a cool breeze and hear the outside voices of nature (my poeticness version of saying, “Hear the cows chewing the grassy fields and mooing distress-fully.”) I was closing the curtains half-way when I noticed the sky was glowing red. My first thought, “Jesus is returning!” and went into an excited panic moment. Then realized it was not, but couldn’t put my finger on what I was seeing. Still in an excited panic state, I ran downstairs (yes, I literally used to run down the stairs), and yelled, “The sky is red!!” My Chicken Little moment. Dad looked out the study-room window, but the corner of the roof blocked his view of the red, making my Chicken Little situation all the more realistic. But I persisted that he go outside. When we did, the sky was aglow! Northern Lights…right out my bedroom window. Unfathomable.

He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
    and turns deep darkness into the morning
    and darkens the day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea
    and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
the Lord is his name.

Amos 5:8, ESV

Daylight Saving Time. Did you miss it? Don’t worry about raising your hand if you did, because I would not see it anyway. 🙂 Last night, I watched just a tad of National Treasure to relax. It was on TV, so I could tell where they cut lines out (not as cool as the real deal movie), so I did not watch anymore past the part where they go to Independence Hall for the “retro specs.” 🙂 In the movie, Riley tells Ben and Abigail about Daylight Saving Time. This made me curious, so I decided to look it up and see when it first started. Of course, National Treasure quotes that Benjamin Franklin was the first to propose Daylight Saving Time– and it’s true (I figured it would be, but just had to be certain.)

I found the official website for Daylight Saving Time: http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving. I started clicking around and found some information about Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was in Paris at the time–I assume most likely when he was serving as the U.S. ambassador. He was very sick and getting older in years, so much time was spent at his house. Franklin had attended a demonstration about a new oil lamp and went home thinking. Soon after, he noted the sun rising earlier (well, he had noted this for quite a while and had been writing it down in a record journal). Thus, he wrote an article, called An Economical Project, which was “a discourse on the thrift of natural versus artificial lighting,” (http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin.html, 2008 by IDEA). I think that Benjamin Franklin was a very wise, practical, and resourceful man. Of course, Daylight Saving Time did not get put into full effect until WWI, but I think that Franklin’s intent on saving energy is no different from today. We do not use oil lamps, but we pay light and gas bills, so it is relatively the same context of using daylight hours to save energy and resources. I am no “early to bed, early to rise” person, so I cannot point any fingers at people wasting energy. 😀 Anyway, the whole history and topic is quite interesting! If you want some more great links from the website, I found these fascinating:

http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.html

http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin.html

http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/e.html

*MUST READ!! 😀 http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin3.html

Aside from Daylight Saving Time, I must say that I do not like the dark. Nope. Not at all! Not so much that it scares me, more the fact that I have the worst balance in the dark and I cannot read people’s lips in the dark. Car rides are extremely frustrating for me when they are in the dark! My family turns on the small car light so I can read lips, or the favorite–using their cell phone to light up their face–but I still miss a lot of conversation.

My balance problems are a result of my hearing loss. Back when I was a kid, I struggled with weak ankles, but totally could play games like Kick the Can out in the dark with my sisters and friends. Have you ever played Kick the Can? What a game!!! We lived in the country, so no street lights were around our area which made the night a deep pitch-black dark. I liked this most in the moments on clear nights with no moon. We would take out blankets and gaze at the stars and talk. We could see part of the Milky Way from our yard…just being lost in the gaze of stars made me realize how small I really am compared to the universe.

Anyway, back to Kick the Can–you play in pitch darkness! You want to even wear black or dark clothes, because the whole point of the game is like Hide and Seek with a few twists. Someone is selected to be the “it” person (You know, “You’re it.”) 🙂 They count to say a hundred somewhere while everyone hides. The point of this game is to hide so that you cannot be found. If the “it” person finds you, they have to say, “Bang ______”. That blank is your name. If they say the correct name then that person goes to jail, but if the name is incorrect, they do not move until either the correct name is said or they just go on searching for others. If you get in jail, then you start yelling for people to come get you out. You do no want the “it” person to get everyone in jail, because then whoever was put first in jail is now the new “it” person. Make sense so far? Good. 😀

Now, the fun part begins when someone gets in jail. The can has already been placed in the yard at a specific spot where everyone knows, usually close to the set jail area (our jail was the back patio). When the person(s) in jail start yelling for help, you have the option to help them by attempting to literally kick the can without being caught. If the “Bang ____” is said before you kick the can, then you go to jail with the others. If not, then you yell out, “HOME FREE!!!!!” Thus, resulting in all jail inmates running back into hiding while the “it” person has to find the can and place it back into the designated spot in the yard. This is such a fun game!! We loved playing with friends or cousins when they came to visit.

One last thing before I close for the day–it is, of course, something related to music. 🙂 I grew up on oldies and I loved it!! Anyway, I am sure you have never heard of Charlie Peacock. If you have, applause to you!! Don’t feel guilty if you have not, but then maybe you have heard of dc Talk?? Ah yes!!! Classic times in the contemporary Christian music industry when they were a band! dc Talk sang a song, called “In the Light”, on their Jesus Freak album.

If you are wondering the connection between Charlie Peacock, dc Talk and “In the Light”, well, Charlie Peacock wrote it for his Love Life album (1991).

Yes this is extremely old, but serious, a really good cd!! (My Dad will be proud of me saying so). Anyway, dc Talk sings his song and it is my favorite version. The song is about God’s Light and the desire to be IN His Light and salvation. One of my favorite songs ever!!!

I found a YouTube video of dc Talk singing the song during a concert. I encourage you to listen to the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWq1XYxtlRs

Enjoy an extra hour of sunshine!! More to come…

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