Sun
I reckon that the Sun with its accompanying rays is perhaps the greatest gift enjoyed by humankind. The source of all our Earthly existence and bounteous lifeforms, this blazing ball of burning gases was worshiped from earliest times. I’m not surprised. Our tribal ancestors knew more than we give them credit for, tapping into their body sensors to inform them what deserved worship. When the sun was out they felt good and able to hunt down their next meal; when it retreated back into its dark shell, the only thing to do was to retire and have a good, albeit sometimes cold, night’s sleep. This icon of the heavens was vital in all sorts of ways to ancient man, and yet perhaps the most telling was the benefit of a psychological high, when it brought with its warmth and vital vitamin D.
Today we 21st century dwellers fancy ourselves as a much more sophisticated bunch than our superstitious forebears. Technically addicted whizzkids, we daily dash our way along acquisition highway, frantically trying to obtain our next fix in the search for contentment and happiness. Of course, it never arrives, leaving us a burnt-out wreck of an excuse for a human being. Perhaps it’s time for us to get back to basics and ride the rhythms of the natural world. Time to stop and bathe in the ever-giving splendor of our great energy source – the Sun. Closing our eyes and allowing its warmth to melt our frozen soul, allows us to go back in time, to the era of simplicity and survival, when very few things really mattered.
Standing here in the city centre of Lincoln, England, my weary eyes slowly scan all around me – the concrete, the cars, and the rush and bustle of ridiculously early, pre-Christmas mania. The University with its seats of learning and new- found financial clout, stretch out far below the Medieval Anglican Cathedral majestically perched high on top of Lincoln’s only hill. The ecclesiastical ancient towers pointing towards a serene and cloudless November sky, an intermediary between the world of man and the highest heavens. And there, in all its glory shines the Sun, pouring its welcome but weakened rays on the scurrying crowds below. Time to look up and reconnect with Nature’s golden gift, the beacon of hope for all who walk in darkness. Time to feel the energizing power of its arriving space-travelled beams.
My wistful mind suddenly unearths a distant memory from my boyhood days – a Star Trek episode from the original Gene Roddenberry series. One James T Kirk, Spock and all the gang are visiting an alternative ‘Earth’, one on which the Roman Empire never fell, with ‘Sun’ worshipers forced into bloody combat in the gladiatorial arena of a modern TV studio. Of course, as always the good Captain has the last word before triumphantly beaming back up to the Enterprise. Standing on the outskirts of the city our heroes notice that there are not one but two suns in the sky, unlike the Earth of home. It’s only then that the penny finally drops. The enslaved combatants weren’t ‘Sun’ worshippers after all but ‘Son’ worshippers. Kirk and Spock stand in awe and stare.
So too me as I gaze up at our beloved Brother Sun. For, ‘A Light has come into the world and we comprehended it not.’ Enough said.
Dylan’s Author Page ~ https://goo.gl/7BJ8JR
Writer Dylan Morrison 