Dancing to the Rhythm of the Sun

Joe Broadmeadow

February 13

Eppur si muove

The relative position of the sun each day is a fluid matter. While we all say it rises in the east and sets in the west, it never rises or sets in the same spot.

More importantly, the sun is not the one moving.

Here in the northern hemisphere, the sun appears to move north from Winter to Spring until it reaches the Summer Solstice on June 20^th and then moves progressively south from Summer through Fall until the Winter Solstice on December 20^th.

I am sure some of you recognized the prefacing words to this piece, Italian for 'and yet it moves.' Words spoken by Galileo after being found heretical by the then-all-powerful Catholic Church for claiming the earth moved around the sun. The Church forced him to recant his claim and placed him under house arrest for the rest of his life.

But Galileo was right: the sun did not move. It is our perspective that is wrong.

As a young boy, my perception of the sun was limited to sunrise and sunset. Regardless of (not irregardless, no such word) the time of year, sunset was the most crucial element regulating my day. It played a more significant role in my life, with the late summer sunsets offering more time outside and the early darkness of winter limiting the same.

Our youthful perception of time was not refined enough to notice the sun's progression toward and away from the north pole. It came up, it went down. That was all that mattered.

But now, with our perception of time's inexorable acceleration growing more refined with each passing moment, it is as if I can watch the sun rocking back and forth, north and south, with each passing day.

Galileo paid a high price for seeking the truth, yet we may follow our perceptions down a false path without the truth.

Joe Broadmeadow

At various points in the solar year, the sun's rays enter our home through a variety of angles. Our usual places for morning coffee can become a bit less comfortable, with the bright Arizona sun blinding us, necessitating a change in habits.

The sun chases us around the room.

Now, I am aware of this daily change. It is something I never noticed back in those early days of my youth in Cumberland.

Back then, I would have argued that Galileo was wrong—if I had held such discussions—because the sun was obviously moving around the earth.

Time and determination are the only ways to understand how apparent perceptions can be appallingly wrong. Just because you see something as evidence of a truth does not make it so.

Every day, we dance to a different rhythm of the sun. Every day, we see the sun at not quite the same spot it was the day before. Every day, we must remind ourselves that our perceptions of truth are often absolutely wrong despite what our senses tell us.

Eppur si muove, and yet it moves. Galileo did not let his perceptions limit his search for the truth. He went beyond the obvious, beyond the surface of an issue, and found the reality far different from the common perception.

We can learn a lesson by not limiting ourselves to what seems obvious.

Galileo paid a high price for seeking the truth, yet we may follow our perceptions down a false path without the truth.

Dancing to the rhythm of the sun by understanding the laws of the universe and life is the only way we can survive as a species.

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