AUGUST THOUGHTS

PHOTO BY BILL SLAVIN

Some days I just have to look up to the sky. That beautiful cerulean blue of summer, the cloudy grey of winter, the sunset hues of autumn, or the billowy clouds of spring. I look up and feel the wonder. How vast the sky is and how clouds stream or drift across, sometimes creating new shadows on the ground. The view reminds me how insignificant we all are. In August though, if you are lucky and can stay up way past your bedtime, the Perseid meteor shower fills the sky. The meteors, each small in comparison to a planet and all originally of the comet Swift-Tuttle, are pulled together and fly like one across the sky before they evaporate in the heat of our atmosphere. I think again of the lessons that Nature teaches us, how small things united can make a big impact.

PHOTO BY BILL SLAVIN

August, before school starts, can be a slow winding down of summer. August is filled with discovery: baby sparrows hop in front of me as I walk the neighborhood, still small enough to pester their parents for any tidbits the parents find. The dragonflies flit around inside Oracle Ballpark on game days. I ask myself why are they within the ballpark? Is it the humidity created by all the other bodies so close together? Was this their home before the ballpark was built and they persist in staying?

At night, somewhere out of the city, I can experience the quick thrill of seeing a shooting start late at night. As someone with nearsightedness, I didn't see a shooting star until I was given a pair of glasses in elementary school. Looking up, I was amazed at how full the night sky was. I could then identify the Big Dipper and Orion, where before all I saw was the dark, indigo sky with only the moon and some of the larger stars and planets like Venus and Mars visible to me. Perhaps that is why I continue to look up in hopes of seeing the moon in the sky.

PHOTO BY BILL SLAVIN

The slow, hot days of August are filled with historic reminders of human achievement and human failings:

August 6 and 9, 1945, the days when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

August 6, 1965, when the Voting Rights Act was signed by President Johnson.

August 13, 1961, East Germans began to build the Berlin Wall to prevent mass migration into Western Europe.

August 18, 1920, the day when the 19th Amendment was passed which allowed white women to vote. Black women, Asian women, Hispanic and Indigenous women waited till 1965 to gain full voting rights in all states.

August 28, 1963, when the March on Washington took place. Will we have a repeat of that march this year?

August 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans.

August, the end of summer, a time of wonder in nature, and a reminder of the continuous progression/regression of human actions.

History of the Women's Suffragette Movement:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution 

Check out Meteors, Comets, and Astroroids:

 https://science.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-meteors/

Read about the atomic bombing here:

https://visit.archives.gov/whats-on/explore-exhibits/atomic-bombing-hiroshima-and-nagasaki

Read about President Johnson and the signing of the Voting Rights Act here:

https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/voting-rights-act

Check out the Berlin Wall here:

https://diplomacy.state.gov/berlin-wall/#the-legacy-of-the-berlin-wall

 The March on Washington information:

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/march-washington-jobs-and-freedom 

Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath:

https://www.weather.gov/mob/katrina