Gazing in the Mirror

February 29 - Leap

Jump, and you will find out
how to unfold your wings
as you fall.
~ Ray Bradbury

When prayer removes distrust
and doubt and enters the field
of mental certainty, it becomes
faith; and the universe is built on faith.
~ Ernest Holmes

I knew this day would come. I was missing one essay and because of that I first wrote this essay the first Leap Year that occurred after I started writing these.  Finally in 2016, I had the pleasure of writing one more essay. The last "new" essay I will ever contribute to this yearlong effort. Of course, there are scientific reasons that there is even such a thing as Leap Day and that is because of the physics of our Earth. The revolution – the tilt of the Earth on its axis – is what gives us winter or summer and is at least partly responsible for needing a Leap Day to catch up to reality. The truth is that the Earth completes a rotation in LESS than 24 hrs (approx 4 mins less). But if we tried to use that calculation we'd end up with the sun out at midnight for about a half a year. That simply won't do !!

We would be correct in measuring a year from Winter Solstice to Winter Solstice as the Earth's North Pole does point its maximum amount away from the Sun. However such a way of measuring a year would come up about 20 minutes shorter than an the astronomical year. This is also why the Pole Star changes its position very slowly over a 26,000 year period (how the Mayans measured a long cycle). If we tried to measure these factors precisely, we'd be off by a whole month after a century. Yet trying to correct this anomaly caused there to be 10 days too many by 1582. Oh my !! Some countries (Italy, Poland, Spain and Portugal) even eliminated Oct 5th through Oct 14th in 1582. It was because of this that the world shifted from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar which adds a day for even year that is divisible by 4 (such as 2016 !!). And there is NO Leap Year at a turn-of-the-century, unless it is divisible by 400 but 2016 seems to come "close enough" (5.04).

Would you like to complicate things a bit more ? Yes what ? The Earth's rotation rate is changing. Why is that ? Earthquakes for one thing. Every time we have an earthquake the Earth is in effect rearranging it's mass and that causes the rotation to speed up. But to further complicate things there is also the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon. Both the Sun and the Moon exert greater gravitational pulls on the side of Earth that's closer to them than on the side that's farther away. Yes, the ocean has it's tides but the whole effect also causes what is known as "tidal braking" which causes the Earth's rotation to slow down. And here's something astounding about changes in the length of an Earth day, 4.5 billion years ago a day was only approx 6-1/2 hrs long. In another 4 million years, we won't need a Leap Day because reality will have caught up with our time structures and a year will be exactly 365 days.

So let's celebrate LEAPS on Leap Day this year. What good are leaps anyway ? Sometimes the challenges of Life require a leap from us. So we just do it. Often it increases your faith in your own abilities. Overcoming setbacks can be very empowering for our sense of self-reliance. What we often think of mistakes are simply important lessons about the way life works. Sometimes we really have to make a leap of faith because something just feels right to us, even if we can't explain it to anyone else well enough that they would encourage our choice.

I once made a leap to leave a relationship that I knew deep down in my heart really wasn't in my own best interests. I left with very little in the way of clothes, belongings or money. I didn't know anyone in the city I landed in. I didn't have a job or a place to sleep. Somehow, all manner of assists (even if they wouldn't look that great to anyone else) came along and I didn't starve and eventually got back on my own two feet. OK, there was a little occasional help from my parents (rarely sought but I'll admit to small amounts of cash a couple of times) but mostly there was a willingness to be open to whatever "solutions" to my needs presented themselves to me (an ugly car on monthly payments, a room in the house of a couple I didn't know before I moved in, and a job waiting tables in a bar).

I always think of Leap Year as Sadie Hawkins Day for Li'l Abner cartoons. The idea may have had its origin in a reversal of the Greek myth of Atalanta (a virgin huntress who was unwilling to marry). When the goddess Artemis wasn't honored by the King, in anger she sent a wild boar to ravage the land as wild hogs do. Atalanta joined the hunt but that upset many of the men. Then, reunited with her father the King (who wanted a son) she agreed only to marry a man who could outrun her in a footrace. With the help of Aphrodite and some golden apples Atalanta was married. It is said by some that women proposing to men on Leap Day is an old Irish legend that St Brigid struck a deal with St Patrick that woman could propose marriage to men every four years. Maybe your leap – if you are a woman not romantically linked but wanting a man – will be to ask your favored one out on a date !!

~ perspective

I enjoy learning about the
astronomical realities that
create a Leap Day every 4 years.
Complexity is much more interesting
to me than simple explanations.
When I decided to make a
significant leap out of my own
comfort zone (and it wasn't really
all that comfortable making the
leap easier !!), all manner of
help came my way.
If one leaps in the direction
of their truest passion, even
if they fail, much will be gained
simply by having the experience.
I'm sure glad that I wasn't
born on Leap Day, what a
complication birthdays would
be if I had.

#axis #calendar #challenges #marriage #myth #physics #relationships #rotation #science #sun