One Lifetime…

…measured in miles.

Some fun facts about my Dad for you, but first…

Ever stop to think about what it actually means to “age” one year?

Nowadays, I hear it a little more than I had in the past—and this coming from a former science, even astronomy, teacher—ME!! Turns out, a year really has nothing to do with time (well, okay, a little to do with time but THAT only as a human construct—the concept of time was created by humans, and we still think we need time to function in our daily lives).

Instead, it, a year, has everything to do with distance travelled.

It’s completely legit, when you next greet a person on their birthday, to ask them NOT “How old are you?” but “How many miles have you travelled to get here?”

Stay with me now, this is fun! And there’s a bonus Eldering from my Dad at the end.

Insert Fun Facts Here (aka “why I LOVE science so much!”):

First, a very important caveat: what follows is a brief summary of historical science told from the biased and very Western-centric storytellers—likely the same authors you read from in your science classes that you grew up with.

Current research and scholarship in archeology, anthropology, indigenous cultures is uncovering amazing and inspired information that Native, Indigenous cultures, societies, and peoples, had their own, turns out remarkably accurate cosmologies, when it comes to the origins of the universe, our solar systems, and our planet. Cultures like the ancient Chinese, the Mayan, Incan, Aztec, Celtic, and even “America’s” own First Nations’ Native Peoples like the Crow, the Lakota, the Sioux, the Cherokee, and the Navaho, to name a few; (but there are many more)—all held beliefs about the physical aspects of the cosmos that, as is being discovered, are very modern-like and scientifically accurate.

It makes for VERY fascinating reading!

With that important lens overlaid upon what follows, let’s continue by putting back on our egocentric, Westernized-lenses of history…

It hasn’t been all that long ago, in the grand scheme of human history (let alone geological, even evolutionary time!), when we silly humans used to think WE (read “Earthlings”) were the center of the universe. All evidence available to us at the time, mainly from our own earth-bound senses, gave credence to that “universal” belief. The earth is stationery because, well, we can’t feel it moving. And everything else, sun, moon, stars, other galaxies, are all revolving around US! Cuz, YEAH; WE are THAT special! Besides, I can SEE all those heavenly objects moving across the sky!

Everything changed in the year 1543 CE (see, not THAT long ago!) when Nicolaus Copernicus deduced that the earth, and all the observable planets that could be seen in the night sky actually orbited the sun! Thus, in one fell swoop of a new wing-dinger astronomical law, Copernicus swept away all of our “specialness” in the universe. Turns out, the earth is just like every other celestial body. At its inception, when Copernicus first articulated this, it was initially met with quiet skepticism among the ruling classes—especially the Catholic Church whose influence at the time was immense given where most of the authentic science was taking place (remember, in the Western, “civilized” world—right there in Europe and even there in Italy. It wasn’t until Galileo when the Church finally caught on that “the earth orbiting the sun” model of planetary movement took us out of our “special” status originally believed to have been granted by God and God alone. The Church placed Galileo, in 1633, under house arrest for the rest of his life and forbade him from further scientific inquiry when he espoused and taught the Copernican model following his own observations from the crude telescopes he crafted. To read that again: Galileo was found guilty of heresy by top Vatican officials, and was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his natural life all because he taught our Earth and the visible planets revolved around the sun. It took Pope John Paul II, in 1992, to absolve Galileo of heresy admitting that Galileo was right to support the Copernican theory of celestial body movements. And the Church, at that time, and until 1992…was wrong. Better late then never I guess.

The fact of celestial movements is completely taken for granted now (even from the flat-earthers who, yes, still exist in our world), but imagine how revolutionary that was at the time. Whole books have been written on the history of just this one scientific fact—and it’s ramifications on human culture, religion, beliefs, and our place or status in the universe.

One of the consequences of that new scientific law changed what humans believed was the cause of the seasons we experience on the earth. THAT, even of itself, is counter intuitive. Consider an aside…(Remember, I used to play a science teacher in my former life—so I know of where I speak when I say):

I believe most students, and sadly maybe many adults, harbor a misconception still about why we have our seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Want to see for yourself? Find a kid (or heck, next door neighbor, or while you’re at it, anyone!) and ask them the following question:

“Of our four seasons, quick, which one are we in when the earth is closest to the sun?”

[I pause here while YOU answer the question yourself!]

Congratulations if you said, “duh, summer.”

‘CUZ YOU’D BE WRONG, BUT IN GOOD COMPANY!

In fact, you would be off by upwards of 3 million miles! In the middle of our northern hemispheric summers, at roughly, but not exactly at the time of the summer solstice (which, by the way, we just celebrated this past week on June 21), with a designation known as “aphelion,” (usually during the first days of July), the earth is at its FARTHEST point away from the sun in its orbit.

Note that “we” do not have a circular orbit; our orbit, as are likely most all planetary orbits in the universe, are elliptical.

THIS year we will “celebrate” Aphelion Day on July 6, 2023 at 4:06pm Eastern time! What plans have you for celebrating Aphelion Day? I know you’ve got ‘em, right? Fireworks? BBQ? Champagne? Making s’mores from the fire pit? Do tell!

(Join me in being a nerd and start asking that asking that question to people you meet! It’s a fun conversation starter. PLUS, YOU get to spread around a little science! Never a bad thing, that.)

So has the initial question been answered? Why the four season?

In a way, yes, but…

Because this aside has gone on too long, I’ll leave YOU to google “earth’s tilt” or “why do we have four seasons?” And while you are at it, search for the definitions of solstice and equinox (if you don’t know for sure, never be content with not knowing!).

(To go even deeper, and at risk to yourself of becoming even nerdier, ponder why the solstices and the respective aphelion and perihelion days are NOT coincidental!)

Okay, back to regularly scheduled programming—aka “the real reason for this post.”

How old was my Dad when he died? Which is to say more accurately, how many miles through space did he travel?

Back to the first question I asked above:

Ever stop to think about what it actually means to “age” one year?

While that image of Aphelion Day is sitting there in the paragraph above, let’s pay closer attention to that elliptical orbit. Because THAT gives us the answer to how old, no, how far Dad travelled.

If you know that on your birthday, you have “gone completely around the sun one more time since your last birthday,” you are closer to understanding that our age is more a function of distance travelled. Now for some funner facts (with an underpinning of Einstein’s relativity theory sprinkled in among our stardust; because in space, time, distance, and speed are all relative; so strap back on your nerd again!):

Traveling through space, the earth moves at a brisk 67,000 miles per hour!

Which is 1117 miles per minute and…

18.5 miles per second. Traveling at earth speed, it would take me about 2 seconds to get to Seattle from my home in Lake Stevens (and for the earth to span a marathon’s distance); almost 9 seconds to get to Yakima; and about just over a leisurely 19 seconds to get to the Washington/Idaho border just east of Spokane. Yawn…”what, did you run into rush hour traffic?”

Traveling at earth speed, it would take us 3.5 hours to get to the moon. I wouldn’t recommend it though, there are no rest stops along that journey (and you have to bring your own toilet!). Actually I WOULD recommend it! The views are apparently “out of this world!” (See what I did there?)

Now look back at that elliptical orbit—to get from one summer solstice to the next summer solstice, or from one of your birthdays to your next one, the earth travels 584 million miles around the sun.

Now to Dad.

Dad’s biological age when he died was 84.5 years. Over the course of my Dad’s life, he travelled a total distance of just over 49,348,000,000 space miles! (49.3 billion miles!). When Dad died, he was over 49 billion miles old! No wonder he was tired and that his warranty had expired!

He told me he never accrued frequent flyer miles, either. HA!

With that many miles, Dad could have travelled to the moon and back 103, 281 times! But he chose to be a farmer instead.

Wise choice that.

The Eldering:

These facts are fun to consider, right? Now even YOU can determine how far you have travelled through space in your lifetime (multiply your age by 584 million miles). I’m gonna get a t-shirt with my frequent flyer miles printed on it at my next birthday! (Yes, I can be a TOTAL nerd!).

Of course, it is also accurately said that age is more a state of mind—that it’s “not how old you are, but how old you feel inside” that matters most (I won’t ask you if that’s a good or bad thing for you personally although it is fun to play around with THIS question: “If you didn’t know how old you were, how old would you think you are?”). Put astronomically, it’s not the miles traveled that matter, but the quality of the miles when you were on the journey.

In space, there is no destination. There is no place we are getting to—we just simply go round and round, relative to the sun. The movement of our Milky Way galaxy adds a whole ‘nother level of complexity—unless you are an astronomical physicist. On earth, the Eldering, even the Eldering from my Dad, is that happiness and joy are never found at the end of a journey; happiness and joy ARE the journey. Understanding THIS is our key to a meaningful, contented, and joyful life! This is also why my Dad never worked a day in his life—he knew that if he loved what he did, and he LOVED farming to his core, he never considered that “work” to be hard, or dreaded, or burdensome. My Dad considered farming his deepest joy.

And for most of his 49+ billion miles, he traveled all that distance with a smile on his face (even though weeds and a rusty hitch ball on a red F150 Ford pickup did follow right along with him!).

Put more bluntly this Eldering—it’s never about getting there. There is no “there” to get to. It’s ALL about here, where you are right now. It’s about the journey itself. Even for my Dad.

This blog, at that time when dad was still alive, was named “Dad’s Journey Home.” It was never really about the “home” part even though I used the word “home” to mean two different things (did you ever figure that out?). Until, that is, his Soul actually and finally returned to its space and time of boundless and eternal origination. One COULD call that home, except that “Soul” happens to be in every where and in every time—which includes the journey itself. Everywhere Dad was, he was, in a way, home—even in the Brookdale “jail.” No, the blog was always about the priceless moments on the path stolen from his companion Dementia—until Dementia laid claim to all those shared moments once a for all. It was about every moment and every mile of Journey; every step after hesitating and trembling step. Even when the final ones had to be taken by me pushing him in his wheelchair.

It was about the quality we imbued into every mile travelled as we were silently circling the sun. Fortunately, we knew enough to know we weren’t traveling toward joy, we were living joy in every moment.

THAT’s one of the miracles.

It was about creating Alchemy with my Dad.

May you travel, always, with a light heart, a smile on your face, and with nary a worry as a companion.

And always pack lightly. There’s a long way to go (if you are lucky like my Dad, maybe over a grand total of 49 billion miles to go!).

And there’s a lot to see along the way! Just keep your eyes and heart open.

Until next time…umm, no. See you in a few miles.

May joy be always where you are—with you on every mile.

Always and Ubuntu, and gratefully,

~ kert

Namaste

🙏🏼

PS: Now you can throw your next birthday boy or girl for a loop. Instead of joking with them “gosh, you sure look old today,” you can accurately say “Dang, you have really travelled far, haven’t you!”