This morning I was up early and saw the sun rise on the New Year. It looked very similar to yesterday’s sunrise, but there was something different about it. Perhaps it was just my mental inference on an occurrence unchanged since the beginning of the universe.

When we watch the sunrise, we are seeing, in essence, the same scene that all of mankind to date has witnessed. It may seem new and novel, and perhaps the exact same conditions are not present in exactly the same proportions, but close enough. When you watch the sun’s rays piercing the fading night sky, you are seeing the same phenomenon as the first creatures that roamed the earth. Yes it is the same as the dinosaurs observed, and birds before them. When our oldest ancestors looked to the morning sky they also saw the sun methodically rising and casting its light and warmth on the earth. Although science tells us the universe is constantly evolving it is for all practical purposes unchanged.

So what’s the point? There are probably those who have never bothered to watch a sunrise, and could care less that is a thread of commonality that we share with all the creatures who have ever roamed the earth. It is reassuring in a sense that although there seems to be constant change, the fundamentals, which determine our very existence, remain constant.

The sunrise is a fundamental reality for all of us, a law of the universe. It is a mechanism, once set in motion, remained self-sustaining. Day after day the sun rises in a predictable pattern timed to the second by mathematicians, and divided in increments that enable us to measure the passing of time. It seems so elementary due to its familiarity.

This is a New Year. The calendar is reset and we begin again anew to mark and measure the passing of time. I guess the point is that while the universe is a perpetual motion mechanism for all practical purposes, we are not. We have a finite span of time. Whether marked with a calendar or not the result is the same. There will come a day when we personally can no longer sense the sunrise.
So we should make the most of the time we have, and enjoy what we can, for all too soon, someone will look at the sunrise and perhaps think of all those who have shared the common this common thread of the universe.

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