A couple months ago I had an idea. I've been researching and consolidating data and information about our ancestors, our families' history and the times andplaces in which they lived for several decades now. I remember making lists of names and dates of my mother's cousins - she had over a hundred first cousins - while still in Alaska - that would be before 1992. Since then I have found more time to research and consolidate through writing, there is so much more information available in websites online, and my interest is spiked through travel, visiting places which are a part of our history and interacting with others who research and write family histories.
Putting together a book I have found to be a daunting challenge, a challenge I enjoy so much, but I need to find another way of way of expressing my joys and findings, a way that may not require as much uniformity but can be more scattered and spontaneous. The idea was daily essays.
I chose to share the daily writings on October first, the first day of a water year, a year that reaches from the first of October to the end of September, a year that defining the collection and recording of information about water such as a streamflow and rain. This is the year that I worked with while I was an employee of the US Geological Survey-Water Resources Division.
So I wrote several essays in preparation of October first. My idea was taking shape. And then it happened. October first came and went and the essays stayed on my computer. The idea slipped and needed new energy and probable modification. Now it's a week into November and I'm taking the advice of an author, Julia Cameron, who says (paraphrased), "Just write."
Here's what I wrote formy intended ideal first day:
Water Year - One – A Yearly Start
The start of each year is arbitrary, and pontiffs of the calendar know that. Ask anyone, especially of European descent; they will say: “The year starts on January first.” Of course, if one revisits and analyzes the names of the months of the European calendar, you will note that September, October, November and December imply a seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth month which goes on to imply that March is the first month of the year. Really?
In the realm of finance one might note that January first, October first or July first each could be the beginning of a financial year. The US government needs to get its budget complete by October first, more or less. At the US Geological Survey we had to close the books on June 30th. I have to pay my taxes based on financial activities by the end of December 31st.
When asked how much rain you got in a year the answer is typically given from October to September. This is typically the water year. What was the highest stage of the river this year? A hydrologist would answer as if the year started on October first and ended a year later.
Now determining the end of the year is much simpler; it’s when the sun and earth align the same as when that year started. Another way of saying that is that the year is complete when the earth makes a complete revolution around the sun. So the end of a year is dependent on the beginning. Astronomically the year is a bit more that 365 earth days, each day being represented by a sunrise and sunset. If one were observing the rotations of the earth from the North Star, or any other star for that matter, one would count about 366¼ rotations. It’s complex, even more complex than what has been eluded to here, but as humans we have no control over how often the earth rotates before if returns to the same position relative to the sun.
So be it.
That leaves the question as to when one might start a new habitat or activity. Actually the answer is any time, it’s arbitrary. There is a preponderance to start new year resolutions on January first. I thought I would attempt to start this blog consistent with the water year: October first. Being that it’s well into October, I can safely say that I did not succeed with that intention.
There is no great urgency or requirement for me to start a blog at this point is life. Mostly it’s my urgency; it’s my desire to record my thoughts. And to share them on the basis that someone may actually be interested, like how long a year is from the point of view of an earth-bound human or a star-bound alien, or when humans have arbitrarily determined when a year should start and end, or when the laws of the universe define when the year is complete.
As a retired mathematician, toymaker, college-instructor I’m working very hard to be that – retired. I try to not make a list of things to do; this blog idea be counter to that objective. Most days are filled with a morning routine and a step out the front door at which time a list of things-to-do creates itself. I will use the same approach to topics for this blog. Today you were exposed to the start of a new year, a new habit and an explanation of measuring a year.
Join me. Just write. Just enjoy.
