{"id":21514,"date":"2022-12-21T11:08:04","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T16:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=21514"},"modified":"2022-12-21T11:08:04","modified_gmt":"2022-12-21T16:08:04","slug":"21dec2022-winter-solstice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/21\/21dec2022-winter-solstice\/","title":{"rendered":"21DEC2022 \u2013 Winter Solstice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Winter Solstice.\u00a0 The first day of winter, the day when the sun spends the least amount of time above the horizon.\u00a0 The longest night of the year.\u00a0 Well, while some neo-pseudo-druids will be cavorting around the Stonehenge site I\u2019ll spend today reveling in the joys of the season.\u00a0 I\u2019ll watch some more of my favorite seasonal movies, eat some more Christmas cookies and try to work off the calories with some exercise.\u00a0 Camera Girl is devilishly busy with her preparations for the Christmas feast and I am more or less nothing but a hindrance to her at this point.\u00a0 I ask if I can help and just get scowls of contempt for what she considers hollow offers.\u00a0 Maybe I can carry some heavy pots of soup or sides of meat downstairs.\u00a0 But other than those few things I\u2019m essentially of no use to her.\u00a0 Well, what can I say?\u00a0 God has divided us, quite wisely, into men and women and along those same lines he has provided or withheld various talents to the members of the human race.\u00a0 And like the fabulous ant and grasshopper of Aesop some of us toil and are productive and others of us feast and sing.\u00a0 I am cursed to be among this latter group.\u00a0 And Camera Girl is solidly in the former category.\u00a0 Such is life.<\/p>\n

It’s bright daylight today.\u00a0 I intend to walk around in the woods and snap a photo or two of whatever strikes my eye.\u00a0 If tonight is as clear I must take a walkaround in the starlight and enjoy a sight of the winter constellations on this longest night.\u00a0 In fact, the moon is on the next to last night before New Moon so viewing the sky will be almost optimal.\u00a0 Orion will be about 45 degrees above the horizon at about 11 pm and that\u2019s when I\u2019ll take a wander outside.\u00a0 The forecast is for mostly clear skies and 25 degrees Fahrenheit.\u00a0 Sounds pretty good for late December in New England.<\/p>\n

The world diverges into two contrasting pictures.\u00a0 When I hear what is going on in the wide world it is a ghastly disaster.\u00a0 Evil men run just about everything there is to control.\u00a0 Joe Biden is a symbol for a world collapsing into decay.\u00a0 But when I look at my personal world, I see good things all around me.\u00a0 Good people are working hard to improve the lives of their families and displaying wonderful qualities of self-sacrifice and industriousness.\u00a0 I see youngsters working hard at their studies and displaying intelligence and good will.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s a paradox.\u00a0 How can so much good exist in a world that has embraced nihilism and irrational goals?\u00a0 And I must say I haven\u2019t an answer.\u00a0 But I will celebrate the good and hope for the future no matter how bleak the big picture seems to be.<\/p>\n

So, I\u2019ll go out today and take the optimistic approach.\u00a0 From here on in the hours of daylight will be increasing and the New Year comes with the ever-renewed hope that the world will come to its senses.\u00a0 That\u2019s good enough for today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Winter Solstice.\u00a0 The first day of winter, the day when the sun spends the least amount of time above the horizon.\u00a0 The longest night of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3366,818,1263],"tags":[340,3481],"class_list":["post-21514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-life-in-dunwich","category-ocf","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","tag-new-england-winter","tag-winter-solstice"],"yoast_head":"\n21DEC2022 \u2013 Winter Solstice - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/21\/21dec2022-winter-solstice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"21DEC2022 \u2013 Winter Solstice - 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