PREVIOUS THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY
February 28th to 29th 2000
MONDAY FEBRUARY 28
Leap years
This is a leap year - so February will have an extra day tomorrow. It's all because of our historic obsession with precise, evenly divided units of time. Instead of letting the phases of the Moon define our months, we follow a complex, artificial accounting system. Likewise, we try to force every day to last exactly 24 hours, ignoring the fact that the earth does not actually go by such a timetable. One day, I predict, we will start to wise up, loosen up - and live by the more natural, subtle rhythms of the cosmos. The health benefits could be enormous.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 29
Reading the cosmic clock
As tiny children, we are taught to read the calendar and the clock. Now, we do this every day, without a second thought. Yet what are we actually doing? We are extracting information from a complex system of measurement and interpreting this with a view to foreseeing the future. As in; "Oh look. It's 4.30pm. My uncle/aunt is probably at work right now - but soon they will be leaving to go home." That little statement contains an appraisal, an assumption and a prediction. The solar system is simply another, more sophisticated way to tell the time. By reading the cosmic clock... and by making an assumption or two... based partly on lore, partly on logic; we can make some very useful predictions.
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