Heaven and Earth

Since yesterday afternoon’s walk, I’ve been driving about on different errands, and have seen onions lying by the side of several other roads--some in town, and some in the country—so the end of September must be the big onion harvest. On today’s walk along Ash Street, in town, I picked up a big one, though it was kind of dirty and mashed up a bit. (Although I live out in the country, in a big agribusiness area, I do a lot of my walking in the small towns of Mid-Michigan, because of the dangerous highway traffic where I live.) To extend the symbolism I discussed yesterday, when humble onions briefly became solar symbols, I will use this one for “Himmel und Erde” (“Heaven and Earth”), a German dish that combines apples with potatoes and onions.

Another way that Heaven and Earth are interconnected, and enable us to be interconnected, is through water and weather. Today I stood on the Elm Street bridge, as I like to gaze into Sycamore Creek. I noticed the creek is still a bit swollen and swifter-moving from the torrential rains of two weeks ago. When Hurricane Ike was done pounding the Gulf Coast, its system tracked up into the Midwest—which is typical of prevailing weather patterns. Although it created a lot of havoc in Chicago, we weren’t too badly affected, even though we experienced “a hundred year storm.” (We’ve had several hundred-year storms in the 12 years I’ve been living here.) I actually look forward to Hurricane season in the Caribbean, because when the rains eventually get to us, they bring cooler weather, often break summer droughts, and wash a lot of the ragweed pollen out of the air—thus enabling me to get out for more walking. These weather systems also enable me to feel elementally connected to my older son. He is an rpg designer-programmer in Austin, Texas, so the weather that he experiences eventually works its way up to me. (By the way, one of his hobbies is tornado chasing.) When I watch the weather news and see that something is coming my son’s way, I know it will eventually get to me as well.