Marking transitions

Tomorrow’s high temperature is forecast to be 20℉ cooler than today’s. That isn’t what I consider a reasonable autumnal transition. Of the five decades or so that I’ve lived in Minnesota, I recall one or two, maybe three, spring seasons that were actually spring-like. Most went from snow to mud to 90℉ or thereabouts within a period of a month or so. The transition, when it came, was abrupt. Now the same thing is happening in autumn, which used to be a wonderful season here.

mid-October 2018

Photo by J. Harrington

The reduction of Minnesota’s seasons to little more than winter or summer is one of the reasons my interest in druidry has grown. One of the pillars of which is that:

For the ancient Celts there were only two seasons; summer and winter, or the light half of the year and the dark half of the year. The dark half began at Samhain or as it is known in modern times “Halloween” or “All Souls Day” while the light half began at Beltaine or as it is known in modern times “May Day”. These two festivals were the holiest days of the Celtic year, acting as portals between dark and light, between one state of existence and another. They were times of chaos and change when Spirits were said to move freely between the worlds and communication with dead ancestors was most easily achieved.

According to events in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, we appear to be again (still?) in a time of chaos. As this is written, it remains to be seen if McCarthy will hold the speakership, if not, who might replace him, and how all of that may affect the vote(s) during the next a month on funding the federal government for next fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the number of significant labor strikes continues to grow, affecting autos, health care, entertainment and, possibly, other sectors. Paying multiple executives in the millions makes it tough to claim, with credibility, an inability to pay comparable increases to workers and to provide adequate staffing to get the job(s) done. Somehow, I’m dubious Artificial Intelligence will resolve many of these issues.

And then there’s the question of whether the 2024 Republican nominee for POTUS will actually be a convicted criminal, and, if not, who the nominee might be. Maybe simplifying to two seasons will provide US with the breathing room and simplicity we need to get through our current times to something slightly saner.

The Second Coming

By William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   

The darkness drops again; but now I know   

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

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