In Time
Just before this first blast of winter, I pulled from some rock what I first thought was an old axe handle. Turned out it wasn’t that at all but a fossilized part of the stalk of a giant fern that grew here maybe 400 million years ago. It’s one of the oldest, perhaps the oldest hunk of fossil tree ever found, and when I get it back from the scientists we’ll find a good home for it around here where the elementary school kids and anybody else who wants can handle it. Hey, we live in an interesting place and you just never know what you might find.
Nobody actually comprehends geologic time and pretending it’s possible is just comic hubris. What we can grasp more intuitively though, is what that fossil really is: the transformation of sunlight through the primal mystery of photosynthesis from some ancient swamp, both somehow morphed together into stone, eons before the dinosaurs. If you doubt that the earth beneath us is really alive, I invite you to spend a few moments with this stone stalk from the past one day.
Welcome to the season for the contemplation of the mystery of time. No, we’re not offering up answers, just reminding you that to every thing there is a season, this one’s here again and well, Merry Christmas. It’s true that the life of Christ is told as a history, a narrative. And whether we celebrate the birth of the Christ as a theologically unique event, a mythically symbolic one, both perhaps, or not at all, it is regardless, our civilization’s most compelling and enduring story. And the reason’s simple. It’s because the theme of the incarnation is the transformation of humanity into God, the awakening of the divine within us, and the redemption of time itself from the unfathomably infinite past and future. That’s why one doesn’t need to be a believer as we usually use the term, to believe in Christmas. It’s a story that transcends its own narrative.
Most of us have some degree of ambivalence toward our own religious traditions; if there’s a time to try and make peace with that it’s probably now. We encourage people to seek out the fellowship of shared belief, whatever setting that may take. We encourage people as well to respect, genuinely, the fellowship and beliefs of those who see the world differently. That’s not so much an issue for us here as it is for our nation as a whole, where “moral values” are increasingly code words for intolerance, and many are looking to the courts and our legislatures to move public policy into line with their personal theology. These are grim prospects for our republic, but ones likely to play out nonetheless. We’ll save talk of politics though, for another time.
We’ve all figured out time is our most precious commodity, it’s the post-paleolithic curse. Few of us have much to spare and many, none at all. The tough part to come to grips with though is that what we’ve got is just about all there is, and the best we can do is spend it like every moment matters, because it sure seems to.
2004’s been another interesting year in Shandaken, and we’ve enjoyed keeping you posted on what’s happening. Thanks as always for your letters and feedback…you always know where to find us, and we’re always happy to hear from you.
Warmest wishes for a wonderful Christmas & New Years,

Brian, Paul and everyone at The Phoenicia Times