1 00:00:03,400 --> 00:00:11,640 Speaker 1: A centeral is the protection of my heart radio. Tomorrow, 2 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:18,040 Speaker 1: the northern hemisphere will experience the shortest day and longest 3 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:22,720 Speaker 1: night of the year. In our era of electric lights, 4 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: high speed travel, and commercially regulated harvests, it might as 5 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:31,080 Speaker 1: well be a blip on the calendar. And yet this moment, 6 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:35,560 Speaker 1: one far end on the spectrum of natural change, hits 7 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:39,160 Speaker 1: all of us somewhere deep, like it has for people 8 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:44,080 Speaker 1: dating back to the beginning. I'm feeling a little thrilled 9 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:46,640 Speaker 1: to be talking about it today because I'm not only 10 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,560 Speaker 1: in the midst as we all are, of a seasonal solstice, 11 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:54,840 Speaker 1: but also I think we're in a cultural solstice right now, 12 00:00:55,440 --> 00:00:59,720 Speaker 1: where we don't really know what's going to happen, in 13 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 1: this same way that the ancients huddled around Stonehenge didn't 14 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:07,559 Speaker 1: really quite know whether or not the sun would begin 15 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:13,800 Speaker 1: to move again. I'm Caroline McVicker Edwards, and we're going 16 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:16,319 Speaker 1: to get to talk about a book that I wrote 17 00:01:16,319 --> 00:01:18,880 Speaker 1: about twenty years ago called The Return of the Light, 18 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:22,559 Speaker 1: Twelve Tales from around the World for the Winter Solstice. 19 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:28,800 Speaker 1: Carolyn is also a lifelong educator. I imagine that you 20 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:31,919 Speaker 1: have spent a lot of time talking to children. That's true. 21 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:37,040 Speaker 1: If you were having a discussion, maybe doing some explanation 22 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:40,360 Speaker 1: to a child about the sun and the changing of 23 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:45,600 Speaker 1: seasons and that drama, how might that conversation go mm hmm. 24 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:53,840 Speaker 1: So every year there's a time. It's summertime, when school 25 00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:57,200 Speaker 1: is out, when the days are really long, Right, you're 26 00:01:57,240 --> 00:02:01,600 Speaker 1: playing out in the street till nine clock, and you 27 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:04,520 Speaker 1: don't have to come in because it's getting dark, and 28 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:08,280 Speaker 1: it's not cold. In fact, it's hot and the sun 29 00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:13,639 Speaker 1: is there all day long for you to swim and play. 30 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 1: And depending on where you are, it might be really 31 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:19,399 Speaker 1: hot and you might have to come in and get 32 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:22,800 Speaker 1: in the shade, but the sun is out. And then 33 00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:29,000 Speaker 1: comes Halloween, and Halloween you can tell that by the 34 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:33,520 Speaker 1: time you go trick or treating, it's dark much earlier 35 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:36,760 Speaker 1: than it was in the summer. Halloween is a time 36 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:41,280 Speaker 1: when we think about the dark, we think about the 37 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:45,440 Speaker 1: beginning of the dark. Like we plant a seed inside 38 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:49,240 Speaker 1: of the dirt, and the seed is, of course, the sun. 39 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:53,000 Speaker 1: It's kind of like a Halloween. We're plucking the seed 40 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:55,800 Speaker 1: of the sun out of the sky. It's not there 41 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 1: for us anywhere. We're putting it in the ground. And 42 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:01,000 Speaker 1: it's going to grow again. It we have to plant 43 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:04,680 Speaker 1: it and be in the dark, be with the idea 44 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:10,519 Speaker 1: that death comes and the leaves fall, and all the 45 00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:14,959 Speaker 1: fruits that we're on our fruit trees we've now gathered 46 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:19,880 Speaker 1: in and we're eating. And especially if we celebrate the 47 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:22,880 Speaker 1: Day of the Dead, we think about all the people 48 00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:26,800 Speaker 1: who came before us that handed down our stories and 49 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:30,760 Speaker 1: our ways of connecting to each other. And then after 50 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:35,600 Speaker 1: Halloween it gets even darker and darker, and people start 51 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:43,040 Speaker 1: putting up lights. And then somewhere after whatever holiday you celebrate, 52 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:45,520 Speaker 1: it might be Christmas, it might be Quands, that might 53 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:51,160 Speaker 1: be Honukkah, then you start noticing, oh, it's getting a 54 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:56,400 Speaker 1: little bit lighter and a little tiny bit lighter every day, 55 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:00,280 Speaker 1: until it's almost like the light has been born, like 56 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:02,960 Speaker 1: it's a little baby. And by February it's kind of 57 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:06,440 Speaker 1: like a teenager. The days are much longer than they 58 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:10,680 Speaker 1: were in December, and then they get longer and longer 59 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:14,760 Speaker 1: and longer, until finally in June the days are as 60 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:18,159 Speaker 1: long as they're going to be all year. If you 61 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:22,599 Speaker 1: live way up high towards the North Pole, the sun 62 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:25,200 Speaker 1: doesn't set at all. It doesn't appear to set. It's 63 00:04:25,279 --> 00:04:29,479 Speaker 1: just light all around the clock, and then it gets 64 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:35,120 Speaker 1: darker and darker and darker. The light gets smaller and smaller, 65 00:04:35,160 --> 00:04:37,719 Speaker 1: and the dark gets bigger and bigger, and then it 66 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:48,240 Speaker 1: happens all over again the next year. What do we 67 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:52,920 Speaker 1: mean by the word solstice, So it literally means sun 68 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:58,719 Speaker 1: soul stice stands still around what we call the winter solstice, 69 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:02,440 Speaker 1: which is the twenty two December in the northern hemisphere 70 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:06,440 Speaker 1: on the horizon. The sun appears to just sort of 71 00:05:06,520 --> 00:05:11,000 Speaker 1: hang there that period of time. Those six days where 72 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:16,000 Speaker 1: the sun does not appear to be moving were terrifying. 73 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:20,040 Speaker 1: If it did not appear to begin to move again, 74 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:24,040 Speaker 1: the light would not lengthen and there would not be 75 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:28,719 Speaker 1: light for crops to grow. So there was all kinds 76 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:34,160 Speaker 1: of rituals that developed, both celebratory but also to teach 77 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:39,280 Speaker 1: the sun to return, and it became a focus of 78 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:43,800 Speaker 1: communal life to encourage the sun and encourage each other. 79 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:47,400 Speaker 1: And we still certainly have remnants of that in all 80 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:51,440 Speaker 1: the Christmas lights, the Hanukah lights, the Quansa lights, and 81 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:54,479 Speaker 1: we speak in the way that people have for a 82 00:05:54,520 --> 00:05:59,160 Speaker 1: long time about gathering together and putting away enmity and 83 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:03,320 Speaker 1: taking care of each other and feeding the hungry. We 84 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:07,839 Speaker 1: get really collectively tightened up at this time of year 85 00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:14,960 Speaker 1: because it's a scary time of year. For millennia, the 86 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:19,040 Speaker 1: solstice has been formally recognized by cultures across the world, 87 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:24,200 Speaker 1: from the Roman festivals of Brumalia, Saturnalia, and Opalia, the 88 00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:30,120 Speaker 1: Chinese dong Gi Yalda, the Persian celebration recognizing the birth 89 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:34,120 Speaker 1: of Mithra, the sun god, and countless others. It seems 90 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:40,000 Speaker 1: that commemorating the beginning of winter is an almost universal tradition. Well, 91 00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:44,479 Speaker 1: you know, near the equator, there isn't this big drama 92 00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:48,920 Speaker 1: that we experience in both the southern and northern hemispheres 93 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:53,200 Speaker 1: as they move farther towards the poles. But there's always 94 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:56,680 Speaker 1: an experience for human beings of in some way, both 95 00:06:56,760 --> 00:06:59,120 Speaker 1: in our personal lives and in our cultural lives, of 96 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:04,840 Speaker 1: not no wing what's coming next, and feeling afraid, and 97 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:09,760 Speaker 1: then this coalescing of community around that. Because we're mammals, right, 98 00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:14,680 Speaker 1: we share a kind of a collective nervous system. We 99 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:18,480 Speaker 1: share our anxiety, and we share our calm and doing 100 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:24,480 Speaker 1: things together like singing and dancing and ritual, just being together, 101 00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:28,440 Speaker 1: touching shoulders on the couch, putting our arms around our kids, 102 00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 1: cooking and eating together. These things are nervous system commerce. Yes, 103 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:37,520 Speaker 1: it is often focused on the sun, but there are 104 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:44,120 Speaker 1: other ways that we metaphorically experience a standing still in 105 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:48,200 Speaker 1: the sense that we don't know what's coming. And I 106 00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:52,200 Speaker 1: think that you will find across the world, across cultures, 107 00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:58,480 Speaker 1: ways that people come together around asking for help from 108 00:07:58,520 --> 00:08:01,920 Speaker 1: the gods, from the power, ways that they come together 109 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:07,120 Speaker 1: around making decisions that are big decisions that affect the group. 110 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:11,240 Speaker 1: And you will find connected with those a sense of 111 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:17,800 Speaker 1: humility and surrender to powers that are greater than the group, 112 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:25,440 Speaker 1: and yet that can be contacted by the group. Caroline's 113 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:29,520 Speaker 1: Winter Solstice collection, The Return of the Light retaels folk 114 00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:32,920 Speaker 1: tales and myths that have passed down from cultures around 115 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:37,760 Speaker 1: the world, some of which date back to antiquity. For 116 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:43,000 Speaker 1: the Retellings, it's a process of finding myself in the 117 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:46,920 Speaker 1: story in some way, finding the place where I resonate psychologically, 118 00:08:47,679 --> 00:08:51,160 Speaker 1: and then to collect them. It was important for me 119 00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:55,800 Speaker 1: in general, is to have some sort of organizing principle. 120 00:08:56,880 --> 00:08:59,920 Speaker 1: In this case with this book, it was chaos theory, 121 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:06,760 Speaker 1: which basically says that at the edges of things, it's chaotic, 122 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:10,480 Speaker 1: but it's paradox because if you look at mandel Brock's 123 00:09:10,559 --> 00:09:16,000 Speaker 1: designs at the microscopic level, they're these fantastically beautiful patterns. 124 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:23,520 Speaker 1: So it's completely chaotic and there's a pattern. It is 125 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:27,280 Speaker 1: my own overlay, because of course, the ancients did not 126 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:32,240 Speaker 1: talk explicitly about this kind of anxiety. They told stories, 127 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:36,080 Speaker 1: and the stories were not invented by one person. It's 128 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:39,080 Speaker 1: a kind of a mystery how stories rise up and 129 00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:43,440 Speaker 1: get told in our past on. But my hypothesis is 130 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:48,520 Speaker 1: these stories are the ancients way of talking about the 131 00:09:48,679 --> 00:09:51,679 Speaker 1: chaos at the edge where you don't know what's going on, 132 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:56,880 Speaker 1: and the folk tales address that by using the themes 133 00:09:56,920 --> 00:10:13,960 Speaker 1: of theft, surrender, and race. The first selection of four 134 00:10:14,040 --> 00:10:18,440 Speaker 1: stories are unified by their theme of theft, the stealing 135 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 1: of the light. It's it's so interesting. I mean, so 136 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:26,320 Speaker 1: many of these stories begin with like in the time 137 00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:29,680 Speaker 1: where the world was just dark and like that was 138 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:32,520 Speaker 1: just not working for people. There was somebody that got 139 00:10:32,559 --> 00:10:35,880 Speaker 1: fed up and or you know, felt ostracized, it felt 140 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:38,679 Speaker 1: one off, and it was like, okay, I'm gonna I'm 141 00:10:38,679 --> 00:10:41,359 Speaker 1: gonna take a leap of faith. I'm gonna do something courageous, 142 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:44,000 Speaker 1: and I'm gonna hatch a crazy scheme and go up 143 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:45,760 Speaker 1: here and steal all of it are a little bit, 144 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:48,960 Speaker 1: or get what I can of this light. Yes, so 145 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:51,720 Speaker 1: it's kind of a celebration of a certain kind of 146 00:10:51,720 --> 00:10:58,000 Speaker 1: initiative from the lament Coo Mewalk tribe people indigenous to 147 00:10:58,040 --> 00:11:02,120 Speaker 1: the north coast of California round Bodega Bay. Our first 148 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:08,720 Speaker 1: story is why Hummingbird has a red throat. Really, Hummingbird 149 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:14,079 Speaker 1: ends up being the thief, but the story actually begins 150 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:18,720 Speaker 1: with marsh wren Chaka, who is left out of the 151 00:11:18,760 --> 00:11:23,880 Speaker 1: group and feels a shame and hunkered down rage that 152 00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:28,440 Speaker 1: he's left out, and so he uses his sharp little 153 00:11:28,480 --> 00:11:31,920 Speaker 1: beak to punch out the sun, almost as if it 154 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:35,240 Speaker 1: were a bladder. So he pops it like a balloon. 155 00:11:36,200 --> 00:11:41,680 Speaker 1: And then coyote gets involved, and the trickster coyote enless 156 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:46,640 Speaker 1: Hummingbird to go and steal some of the light. Hummingbird 157 00:11:46,679 --> 00:11:48,959 Speaker 1: is the only one that can get through the tiny 158 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:53,640 Speaker 1: crack in the sky. Swooping in, he steals some of 159 00:11:53,679 --> 00:11:56,679 Speaker 1: the sun and as he clutches it against his throat, 160 00:11:56,720 --> 00:12:00,160 Speaker 1: he gets that red marking that he doesn't have for 161 00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:13,600 Speaker 1: the story birds. The next story is from the Thoria Risa, 162 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:17,880 Speaker 1: a group of tribal people's in India, and it's the 163 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:21,520 Speaker 1: story of a young girl with a set of beautiful 164 00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:24,880 Speaker 1: ear rings. Bearings are classic backed injuries you know who. 165 00:12:24,920 --> 00:12:26,920 Speaker 1: Bearings have always been in style, so it's something you 166 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:30,080 Speaker 1: can't go wrong with. A kite, which is like a 167 00:12:30,280 --> 00:12:34,160 Speaker 1: kestrel or a hawk rips one of the ear rings 168 00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:38,480 Speaker 1: from her ear steals her earring and carries it up 169 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:42,480 Speaker 1: to the otherwise all dark sky and hangs it there 170 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:55,680 Speaker 1: where it becomes the sun gold bearing castabout. In the 171 00:12:55,800 --> 00:13:00,520 Speaker 1: next story from the Inuit people of North America, tuopy Lock, 172 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:04,120 Speaker 1: who is sort of a magician, ends up taking the 173 00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:08,400 Speaker 1: sun for himself, and then Raven, of course, a very 174 00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:13,320 Speaker 1: famous trickster, figures out a way to turn himself into 175 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:16,840 Speaker 1: a feather and to float on the water which is 176 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:21,840 Speaker 1: quoughed down by this beautiful daughter of tuopy Lock, and 177 00:13:21,920 --> 00:13:25,000 Speaker 1: she then gives birth to a little baby, who is 178 00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:30,360 Speaker 1: of course Raven in disguise, who ends up wailing for 179 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:33,559 Speaker 1: the big bags in which the magician has hung up 180 00:13:33,880 --> 00:13:37,480 Speaker 1: the sun and the moon. They give in to him 181 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:41,000 Speaker 1: and Raven takes the light back to his people. So 182 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:45,520 Speaker 1: again it's a trickster kind of energy required to work 183 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:58,319 Speaker 1: here at the Edges. And then finally again from the Arisa, 184 00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:04,960 Speaker 1: the sun Cow and the Thief. As a special treat, 185 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:07,600 Speaker 1: we'll have Caroline read the sun Cow in the Thief 186 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:17,800 Speaker 1: later in the episode. After Theft, come Surrender. In my 187 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:23,240 Speaker 1: own process, it feels like I have to sit with 188 00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:28,360 Speaker 1: the senses that I have around feeling mugged or that 189 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:33,120 Speaker 1: kind of shocked grief or that kind of perception of loss, 190 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:36,480 Speaker 1: and have to move away from my denial and into 191 00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:40,520 Speaker 1: that feeling, and then the next step is to surrender 192 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:45,360 Speaker 1: to it, to just let go without knowing what the 193 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,360 Speaker 1: outcome can be. So in the theft stories there's sort 194 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:51,840 Speaker 1: of a resistance to the status quo, and in the 195 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:56,440 Speaker 1: surrender stories there's more of an allowing change to happen, 196 00:14:56,920 --> 00:15:00,760 Speaker 1: of saying yes, I need to change, we need to change, 197 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:04,160 Speaker 1: this needs to change, this needs to move, and something 198 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:07,800 Speaker 1: might even have to be broken. The first story in 199 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:11,200 Speaker 1: that section about Maui, who is also like Raven, a 200 00:15:11,360 --> 00:15:16,120 Speaker 1: super famous trickster, a Polynesian trickster. This time the surrender 201 00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:19,960 Speaker 1: is actually from the sun itself. His legs are broken. 202 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:23,200 Speaker 1: He's like, okay, okay, okay, I give in, and the 203 00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:26,760 Speaker 1: broken legs allow half of the year the sun to 204 00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:32,400 Speaker 1: walk slowly across the sky. That next story, which I'm 205 00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:35,520 Speaker 1: telling not from the emperor's point of view but from 206 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:39,720 Speaker 1: a tribal point of view, is from the Meut Sioux people's, 207 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:44,280 Speaker 1: who are indigenous peoples of China. It posits that there 208 00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:49,560 Speaker 1: are six sons which are burning the earth up. This 209 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:55,040 Speaker 1: very thoughtful warrior realizes that the suns cannot be shot 210 00:15:55,160 --> 00:15:57,640 Speaker 1: out of the sky, as the other warriors are trying 211 00:15:57,640 --> 00:16:01,600 Speaker 1: to do. But there's this as a of so below moment. 212 00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:05,000 Speaker 1: Instead of shooting the sun's out of the sky, he 213 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:08,400 Speaker 1: finds their reflection in water and shoots them out of 214 00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:11,480 Speaker 1: the water. And then only one son is left, but 215 00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:16,520 Speaker 1: grieving his brother's hides in a cave, and of course 216 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:19,840 Speaker 1: we have the sun again refusing to come out or 217 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:25,280 Speaker 1: being resistant. But then the crowing of the rooster outside 218 00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:28,760 Speaker 1: the caves door enchants the sun into coming out. So 219 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:32,760 Speaker 1: the sun surrenders in a sweet way. In that story, 220 00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:35,440 Speaker 1: instead of like okay, okay, I give in. It's like, whoa, 221 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:40,760 Speaker 1: what is this beautiful music outside? What is this crowing? 222 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:42,800 Speaker 1: And then the sun comes all the way out and 223 00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:46,920 Speaker 1: lights things up again. It seems to me that there's people, 224 00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:49,560 Speaker 1: maybe myself being one, that would take issue at the 225 00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:51,480 Speaker 1: sun on that point. It's like, should you have maybe 226 00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:53,880 Speaker 1: like listen to a little bit more rooster crowing before 227 00:16:53,920 --> 00:16:56,960 Speaker 1: you went with that is your wake up song that's 228 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:06,800 Speaker 1: been driving peoples for ages. But along with these eleven 229 00:17:06,840 --> 00:17:12,040 Speaker 1: folk tns, Caroline decided to include one myth. The North 230 00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:17,679 Speaker 1: Smith poses Light as a beautiful young man and his brother, 231 00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:23,680 Speaker 1: who is Darkness, is blind Balder, the god of Light, 232 00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:26,919 Speaker 1: has a dream that he will die, and so the 233 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:31,359 Speaker 1: whole story revolves around the frantic work of the gods 234 00:17:31,359 --> 00:17:35,400 Speaker 1: and goddesses to keep this beautiful young man alive. And Loki, 235 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:38,480 Speaker 1: of course, is the trickster, and he's jealous of all 236 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:41,760 Speaker 1: the attention the god of Light is getting, and so 237 00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:47,040 Speaker 1: he arranges to trick blind Hode, the twin of Light 238 00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:53,440 Speaker 1: the Dark, into accidentally killing his brother. Loki finds out 239 00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:58,520 Speaker 1: that Mistletoe is the one being on earth not already 240 00:17:58,600 --> 00:18:03,520 Speaker 1: exhorted not to hurt poor Balder, the god of Light, 241 00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:06,959 Speaker 1: because everybody thinks that mistletoe is too weak to do 242 00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:10,960 Speaker 1: any harm anyway. But in Loki's hand, and he puts 243 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:15,919 Speaker 1: it into the god of Darkness's hand, it does harm Balder, 244 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:21,520 Speaker 1: and Balder dies, his wife dies of grief. And this 245 00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:25,400 Speaker 1: is the epic level. The whole world collapses because there 246 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:29,280 Speaker 1: is no light. You find terrible destruction in North Smith's 247 00:18:29,359 --> 00:18:32,040 Speaker 1: and it was a very harsh place on the planet 248 00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:37,159 Speaker 1: to live. Loki is punished, and then finally, out of 249 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:42,680 Speaker 1: the ashes comes Balder again, light free from the underworld, 250 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:46,760 Speaker 1: and I love this part. The only two humans left 251 00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:48,960 Speaker 1: in the Middle world, between the Upper world and the 252 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:53,320 Speaker 1: lower world, the two who had hidden themselves away, came 253 00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:57,680 Speaker 1: out into this new light. Their names were Life and 254 00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:02,960 Speaker 1: the Stubborn Will to Live. The gods and goddesses. Then 255 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:06,080 Speaker 1: the ones who were left gathered together on the sunlit 256 00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:10,880 Speaker 1: plane of the Upper World, home of the Wind, shyly, joyfully. 257 00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:14,760 Speaker 1: They clung to the returning couple, even as Life and 258 00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:17,560 Speaker 1: Stubborn Will to Live had clung to each other in 259 00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:21,520 Speaker 1: the Middle World. The gods and goddesses sifted through the 260 00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:25,480 Speaker 1: wreckage of their great Hall in the ruins, they found 261 00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:32,120 Speaker 1: the golden chess pieces with which they had once amused themselves. Slowly, slowly, 262 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:37,480 Speaker 1: they began to play again. So there's the two characters 263 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:41,040 Speaker 1: of life and the stubborn will to live? What do 264 00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:44,720 Speaker 1: those mean? Do you? How do you separate those two things? Oh? Well, 265 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:48,920 Speaker 1: I guess one feels like, you know, you picture the 266 00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:52,760 Speaker 1: grass coming up through the cement sidewalk crack, you know 267 00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:57,600 Speaker 1: that life will out. There's that amazing book about the 268 00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:03,200 Speaker 1: abandoned land at Chernobyl, which had that terrible nuclear accident 269 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:06,520 Speaker 1: thirty years ago. Now no humans live there, but it's 270 00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:10,720 Speaker 1: just a vibrating with life because humans have kept their 271 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:13,960 Speaker 1: hands off at all this time. And then the stubborn 272 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:17,560 Speaker 1: will to live feels like it's a very human thing, 273 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:21,520 Speaker 1: or maybe it's just a sentient being thing that there 274 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:27,040 Speaker 1: is inside of animals and people and maybe the planet itself. 275 00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:32,880 Speaker 1: There is this will towards life. So the one seems 276 00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:37,440 Speaker 1: like a force that is completely mysterious, and the other 277 00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:42,080 Speaker 1: seems like more of an emotional response to that force. 278 00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:51,080 Speaker 1: The last story in the surrender section is this really 279 00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:55,800 Speaker 1: sweet story from the Sukumba people of Tanzania about these 280 00:20:55,880 --> 00:21:00,760 Speaker 1: three little, tiny animals. Once again, you this theme of 281 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:03,800 Speaker 1: you need to be small to get through the crack, 282 00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:06,479 Speaker 1: to get to the other side where their son is. 283 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:10,200 Speaker 1: In this case, it's not a theft. It's the three 284 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:15,919 Speaker 1: little animals working together in order to outwit the sky 285 00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:21,600 Speaker 1: people who are refusing to give away their light. In particular, 286 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:26,960 Speaker 1: Fly very reluctantly agrees to work with Spider, at first 287 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:35,879 Speaker 1: saying like, no, I'm not working with Spider polic you know, 288 00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:40,040 Speaker 1: Spider will eat me, and then being reminded like, you know, 289 00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:44,760 Speaker 1: the overarching theme here is we have to work together, 290 00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:49,520 Speaker 1: and so Fly surrenders to that bigger call, the Harambi 291 00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:51,679 Speaker 1: call of we have to work together, we have to 292 00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:56,119 Speaker 1: pull together here, and thus manages to work with his 293 00:21:56,280 --> 00:22:07,439 Speaker 1: enemy to get light, and after surrender comes grace. We 294 00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:12,040 Speaker 1: all know that sometimes something just comes to us that 295 00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:15,600 Speaker 1: has nothing to do with our will. We may have 296 00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:18,800 Speaker 1: asked for help. That's part of the surrender of like okay, 297 00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:22,159 Speaker 1: I need help, but we get more than we asked for. 298 00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:25,159 Speaker 1: We get held in a way that we couldn't have imagined. 299 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:28,720 Speaker 1: I mean, in the smallest ways. There's this sense that 300 00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:31,680 Speaker 1: there is a way that we're taken care of that 301 00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:37,200 Speaker 1: is bigger than anything that we can plan. That first 302 00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:41,800 Speaker 1: one is from the Kung Sun people in the Kalahari Desert. 303 00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:48,119 Speaker 1: The Kung Sun call everybody like dog people and people 304 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:55,040 Speaker 1: be people mongoose people, because they recognize the relational nous 305 00:22:55,119 --> 00:22:58,760 Speaker 1: of all of us to each other. In this one, 306 00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:05,960 Speaker 1: Grandfather Mantus starts off trying to solve the cold and 307 00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,879 Speaker 1: dark problem. It's Grandfather Manis who tells them to go 308 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:13,879 Speaker 1: to sun Man, who's fallen asleep. He's heaved into the 309 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:18,000 Speaker 1: air and hot, beautiful light cores from his armpits. Any 310 00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:22,600 Speaker 1: person keep me trying, No, sir, you don't do what 311 00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:26,960 Speaker 1: I do. One stay dry. Sun Man, mon Goose shouted, 312 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,480 Speaker 1: you must go up high in the sky. You must 313 00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:31,320 Speaker 1: make heat and life for us, so we will no 314 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:34,400 Speaker 1: longer be cold, and so the whole earth will have day. 315 00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:39,200 Speaker 1: Sun Man heard, He let himself, so there's that grace 316 00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:42,120 Speaker 1: moment for all of us. He let himself grow hottest 317 00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:45,639 Speaker 1: fire and let his tumbling turn him round as a ball. 318 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:49,160 Speaker 1: That day, sun Man became a bright circle of heat 319 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:52,560 Speaker 1: up high in the sky. Grandfather Mantis was proud. He 320 00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:57,640 Speaker 1: tapped his old brown tooth. Look man is equal to me, 321 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:01,960 Speaker 1: who but I have them magic thin legs, shuffling in 322 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,840 Speaker 1: the dust and head nodding. He began a gay and 323 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:10,159 Speaker 1: boastful dance. And then you have the girl who married 324 00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:13,879 Speaker 1: the son from the Luya people of Kenya and Uganda. 325 00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:17,200 Speaker 1: The Sun lives on the other side of the sky 326 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:21,920 Speaker 1: and gets very interested in this beautiful young woman who 327 00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:26,040 Speaker 1: is lost in the woods. She's runaway, she doesn't want 328 00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:29,879 Speaker 1: to marry, and this rope descends from heaven and she 329 00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:32,640 Speaker 1: doesn't even notice it at first, but it's just dangling there, 330 00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:36,920 Speaker 1: and she grasps it. She's lifted up into the land 331 00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:40,280 Speaker 1: of the Sun. He, in order to woo her, gives 332 00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:45,800 Speaker 1: her his rays shut up in a vessel, and she 333 00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:49,520 Speaker 1: ends up taking the lid off that vessel so that 334 00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:59,160 Speaker 1: it pours down to her people below. Sometimes the most 335 00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:04,080 Speaker 1: gracious gift of all is an empty box. Let us 336 00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:10,560 Speaker 1: borrow empty vessels, said Master chart century German mystic. And 337 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:13,760 Speaker 1: the et reat box, which in the next story is 338 00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:17,639 Speaker 1: called the light Keeper's box, could be such a vessel, 339 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:22,520 Speaker 1: pouring out the spaciousness into which the new can flow. 340 00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:27,240 Speaker 1: So there's that grace again of being willing to give 341 00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:32,680 Speaker 1: away without any promise of return, and there is no promise. Really, 342 00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:35,080 Speaker 1: you might give away and not get grace. But there's 343 00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:38,399 Speaker 1: something in the giving away that moistens I love. That 344 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:45,119 Speaker 1: line moistens the spirits of all beings with generosity and cooperation. 345 00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:51,280 Speaker 1: The Lightkeeper's Box, which is from the Wadau people in Venezuela, 346 00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:56,720 Speaker 1: that's a wonderful story about gift culture, giving things away 347 00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:02,720 Speaker 1: rather than selling things, what anthropologist called commodity culture. That 348 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:07,520 Speaker 1: basically is a story about this chief sending each of 349 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:11,440 Speaker 1: his daughter's out to find the light keeper. The first 350 00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:14,520 Speaker 1: one stays with deer, and the second one finds the 351 00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:17,920 Speaker 1: light keeper, but there's arrows in both of them, which 352 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,359 Speaker 1: is again grace. Take the romance part out of it. 353 00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:25,879 Speaker 1: It's about love and connection. Finally, the et red box 354 00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:28,720 Speaker 1: and it's light get hurled into the sky, but it's 355 00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:33,960 Speaker 1: moving too fast, and so the chief sends turtle up 356 00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:39,600 Speaker 1: to befriend the light and because turtle moves slowly, Sun 357 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:44,399 Speaker 1: has to slow down and wait for turtle. This is 358 00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:48,639 Speaker 1: of course from an equatorial region that moves at turtles pace, 359 00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:50,679 Speaker 1: as the end of the story says, so that the 360 00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:54,760 Speaker 1: day lasts just long enough until the night comes to 361 00:26:54,800 --> 00:27:03,879 Speaker 1: the world by the Orinoco River on this war empty dream. 362 00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:12,560 Speaker 1: And then Labe Fauna and the Royal Child of Light. 363 00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:18,760 Speaker 1: So Italy has the counterpart to Santa Claus, an old 364 00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:22,879 Speaker 1: witchy woman who rides a broom called labe Fauna, and 365 00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:28,400 Speaker 1: she rides around each year looking for the child of Light. 366 00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:33,919 Speaker 1: And she leaves sweeps at every house in case the 367 00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:38,119 Speaker 1: child inside is the child who will light up the world. 368 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:43,760 Speaker 1: That's again that kind of grace, like it isn't just 369 00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:50,720 Speaker 1: one child stick around after the break to hear Caroline 370 00:27:50,720 --> 00:28:03,480 Speaker 1: read a couple of selections from her book. Can I 371 00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:06,679 Speaker 1: read you a paragraph? You can read me anything, alright, 372 00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:12,440 Speaker 1: you can read me the whole book. Collected here, one 373 00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:15,440 Speaker 1: for each of the twelve days that, for so long 374 00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:20,040 Speaker 1: bridged one light cycle with another. Are my retellings of 375 00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:24,080 Speaker 1: twelve traditional stories about light from all over the world. 376 00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:29,000 Speaker 1: Not all these tales are literally about the winter solstice, 377 00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:34,159 Speaker 1: though some are, but each illuminates our fundamental connection to 378 00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:40,280 Speaker 1: light and its cycles of birth, death, and regeneration. Each 379 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:47,520 Speaker 1: crystallizes the significance of light's return each year. Like vessels, 380 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:53,880 Speaker 1: the stories carry us across the stormy, flotsamy slippery edge 381 00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:59,200 Speaker 1: of night. We cross over in three different ways, by theft, 382 00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:05,320 Speaker 1: by surrender, through grace. There are four stories for each 383 00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:10,440 Speaker 1: kind of crossing. When our personalities clutch their old habits, 384 00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:14,600 Speaker 1: the thief may have to grab what we otherwise won't 385 00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:19,560 Speaker 1: let go. When are so functional egos find their orders 386 00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:24,240 Speaker 1: scuttled some other deeper self finally surrenders to the new. 387 00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:30,120 Speaker 1: And then there are those miraculous gifts, those blessings that 388 00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:36,200 Speaker 1: shower down upon us. Read the stories aloud in company 389 00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:41,160 Speaker 1: by candlelight, play the games, make the rights sing, the songs, 390 00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:46,880 Speaker 1: revel together with the animals and the villagers snuggle in 391 00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:52,120 Speaker 1: the egg of the dark. You published and never wanted 392 00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:55,240 Speaker 1: you to do an audiobook of this book on tape. 393 00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:59,719 Speaker 1: It would be fun, wouldn't it. I was looking for 394 00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:01,560 Speaker 1: when I came across your book, I was like, this 395 00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:05,880 Speaker 1: gotta it's gotta be. But that's a great idea. If 396 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:08,480 Speaker 1: you were going to read a story, I have to 397 00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:11,520 Speaker 1: that that I would that I would ask you to 398 00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:14,680 Speaker 1: just choose which one you'd like to do. I don't know, 399 00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:16,280 Speaker 1: if I don't know, if there's all be surprises to 400 00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:18,880 Speaker 1: you or not. But the two that that I would 401 00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,840 Speaker 1: be happy with with either one of are The Sun 402 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:27,240 Speaker 1: Coow and the Thief or the Pull Together Morning. Well, 403 00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:29,560 Speaker 1: you know, I would love to read The Sun Cow 404 00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:33,120 Speaker 1: and the Thief because it's sort of told in almost 405 00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:37,040 Speaker 1: like an intantery way, like almost like a chant. Is 406 00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:42,479 Speaker 1: there anything context wise about that story that we need 407 00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:45,760 Speaker 1: to set up, like any terms or anything. Obviously, the 408 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:49,040 Speaker 1: Cow has a particular significance in India. It is even 409 00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:51,720 Speaker 1: though it is a tribal story and so thus it's 410 00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:56,240 Speaker 1: not part of Hinduism, it does borrow from the Hindu 411 00:30:56,320 --> 00:30:59,600 Speaker 1: neighbors in that the Hindu tell the story of Surya, 412 00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:03,440 Speaker 1: the on god born from the heavenly cow a d t. 413 00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:09,720 Speaker 1: And so there is this cultural overlap and borrowing they're 414 00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:15,000 Speaker 1: implied in the story. The Orisa have the largest variety 415 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:19,960 Speaker 1: of tribal communities on the ethnographic map of India. The 416 00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:24,840 Speaker 1: Kutia cond arc farmers who specialize in the soulful craft 417 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:29,160 Speaker 1: of wood carving. Like other Oresa. They have at the 418 00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:35,040 Speaker 1: core of their communal strength the village council and the dormitory. 419 00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:39,959 Speaker 1: The dormitory is the largest hut three sided, open in front, 420 00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:44,280 Speaker 1: hung with musical instruments and decorated with symbols of the 421 00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:49,200 Speaker 1: animal spirits. When the workday is done, it is the 422 00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:51,960 Speaker 1: site for the gathering of everyone in the village for 423 00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:55,720 Speaker 1: the dance. It functions as a kind of school of 424 00:31:55,840 --> 00:32:00,400 Speaker 1: dance for youngsters growing into tribal traditions, and it is 425 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:03,720 Speaker 1: the meeting place where the elders of the village council, 426 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:08,920 Speaker 1: who make decisions affecting every social, economic, and religious part 427 00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:13,400 Speaker 1: of life. The Arisa borrow from their Hindu neighbors, and 428 00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:17,720 Speaker 1: their neighbors borrow from them. The Hindu tell the story 429 00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:22,480 Speaker 1: of Surya, the sun god, born from the heavenly cow Aditi. 430 00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:29,280 Speaker 1: The Hindi word for cow go also means ray of 431 00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:37,440 Speaker 1: dawn or ray of spiritual illumination. The sun cow and 432 00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:48,160 Speaker 1: the thief. Back at the beginning, the village was like 433 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:54,240 Speaker 1: a hinged box with many sides. A lonely man stood 434 00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:59,320 Speaker 1: on the outside. Looking in through the cracks. He could 435 00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:05,840 Speaker 1: see rightly colored crisscross lines everywhere. People walked to and 436 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:10,920 Speaker 1: fro along the lines, carving shapes and painting shimmering colors 437 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:15,400 Speaker 1: as they went. The man saw an order so neat 438 00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:18,360 Speaker 1: and easy. It seemed he should have been able to 439 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:22,720 Speaker 1: slide right in, the very blood in his body, singing. 440 00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:28,760 Speaker 1: But something was wrong with him, with the way things were, 441 00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:33,320 Speaker 1: he could not get in. It was as if the 442 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:38,320 Speaker 1: village had no doors, only cracks. He could only look, 443 00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:43,680 Speaker 1: never touch. He would always be on the outside, looking in. 444 00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:49,760 Speaker 1: Round the edges of the box, the sun cow walked 445 00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:54,680 Speaker 1: round and round its perfect side. She walked, milking out 446 00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:57,640 Speaker 1: her light in the day, filling the village box with 447 00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:02,440 Speaker 1: color and warmth. At she chewed her cut her black sides, 448 00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:08,520 Speaker 1: giving quiet warmth but no light. The man stood between 449 00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:12,880 Speaker 1: sun cow in the village. The only warmth that the 450 00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:19,680 Speaker 1: man could touch was sun cow herself. Whenever those inside 451 00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:23,200 Speaker 1: the village looked out, they saw only their son cow, 452 00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:28,960 Speaker 1: that lovely black heat that night tour, that daymaker. They 453 00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:32,120 Speaker 1: smacked their lips with the cream of it. They did 454 00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:36,640 Speaker 1: not say, look at that nice man standing outside looking in. 455 00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:40,359 Speaker 1: How silly that he stands alone at the edge, when 456 00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:42,960 Speaker 1: we could simply make a place for him in our 457 00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:47,640 Speaker 1: village of carvings, of shapes and colors. Come, sir, you 458 00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:54,680 Speaker 1: are welcome. They didn't say that. They didn't even see him, 459 00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:58,840 Speaker 1: And so The man waited for the sun cow every day, 460 00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:02,480 Speaker 1: waited for her her to pass him by. He smelled 461 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:06,520 Speaker 1: her musky flanks, saw her soft eyes, and touched her 462 00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:12,840 Speaker 1: velvet hot muzzle. By some mysterious pressure, her light honey 463 00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:16,800 Speaker 1: milk poured out from her utter. The man could feel 464 00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:22,000 Speaker 1: the pressure of his own sadness inside him all at once. 465 00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:26,200 Speaker 1: One day, the man decided to take the sun cow 466 00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:30,080 Speaker 1: for himself. When all the pretty village people could not 467 00:35:30,239 --> 00:35:35,359 Speaker 1: have her anymore, then finally everything might be fair. So 468 00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:38,960 Speaker 1: he waited for her, not even bothering to hide. The 469 00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:41,560 Speaker 1: village people could not see him after all, and she 470 00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:45,400 Speaker 1: had walked sweetly near him, nonchalant, every day of his life. 471 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:49,719 Speaker 1: The day he stole sun Cow, he simply tossed a 472 00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:54,080 Speaker 1: noose over her head and pulled her away away over 473 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:57,400 Speaker 1: the edge of the world, away from the box, away 474 00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:02,440 Speaker 1: from all the can't get in. Away alone to the edge, 475 00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:07,120 Speaker 1: the lights and colors in the village plunged into darkness. 476 00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:11,520 Speaker 1: Without sun Cow's milk, there was only night. The people 477 00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:17,640 Speaker 1: could not see. Babies cried, unfound and unfed by their mothers. 478 00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:20,640 Speaker 1: No one knew when to wake up, when to work. 479 00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:25,000 Speaker 1: All the order lay like unswept wood scraps in a 480 00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:29,640 Speaker 1: dark room. The tidy lines were lumped and smudged, The 481 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:34,480 Speaker 1: colors disappeared. Where had their sun Cow gone? What had 482 00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:39,960 Speaker 1: become of her? They waited in sorrow and fear. The 483 00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:44,080 Speaker 1: thief was having his own problems. At the beginning, he 484 00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:49,000 Speaker 1: luxuriated in the warmth of sun Cow's solidity, in her rhythmical, 485 00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:54,360 Speaker 1: grassy breath. But away from her circling walk around the 486 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:59,080 Speaker 1: little box world, away from her habits, no light came 487 00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:02,719 Speaker 1: from her utter, And because she would not let him 488 00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:07,279 Speaker 1: milk her, it was night for him too. No one 489 00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:11,080 Speaker 1: else had her, But now he didn't have her either. 490 00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:16,960 Speaker 1: When the thief, in desperation, tried to set beneath her 491 00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:20,280 Speaker 1: a pail and squeeze her teeths, she kicked the pail 492 00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:23,239 Speaker 1: away with such certain force that he feared that she 493 00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:27,040 Speaker 1: would kick him too, should he persist. She was only 494 00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:29,439 Speaker 1: trying to save his life, of course, for just think 495 00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:32,719 Speaker 1: what would happen to a single person who tried to 496 00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:37,600 Speaker 1: milk the sun. The thief held his head in his 497 00:37:37,719 --> 00:37:42,040 Speaker 1: hands for ever so long he sat, hoping for her 498 00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:45,960 Speaker 1: light again, longing for a sign that he might milk her. 499 00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:51,960 Speaker 1: Finally he knew he could not keep her anymore. He 500 00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:56,680 Speaker 1: leaned against her for goodbye, for a final giving in 501 00:37:56,840 --> 00:38:00,400 Speaker 1: to going back to the endless looking in and never having. 502 00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:05,240 Speaker 1: Then he slipped the noose from its steak and from 503 00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:10,680 Speaker 1: over her head, and set the sun cow free. But 504 00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:16,640 Speaker 1: she did not return to her circling walk around the village. Instead, 505 00:38:16,719 --> 00:38:21,520 Speaker 1: she leapt up high, joyously high up over the moon. 506 00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:26,960 Speaker 1: Now she walks not just around one village, but in 507 00:38:27,040 --> 00:38:31,839 Speaker 1: a vast sky circle, around all the villages, around the 508 00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:35,239 Speaker 1: circle of the whole world, so that no one now 509 00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:39,520 Speaker 1: needs simply look in without being part, without being seen. 510 00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:46,759 Speaker 1: Everywhere there are doors, carved intersections, lines criss crossing that 511 00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:51,920 Speaker 1: can be walked in and about, shivering and shining with color. 512 00:38:52,760 --> 00:39:01,959 Speaker 1: Everywhere there is light. You know, it's so interesting. There's 513 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:06,319 Speaker 1: a theft, obviously, the theft of the cow, and then 514 00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:11,800 Speaker 1: the thief surrenders the cow. Eventually he realizes that it's fruitless. 515 00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:14,560 Speaker 1: And then there's a grace of the cow not going 516 00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:17,520 Speaker 1: back into the pen, but going into the sky and 517 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:20,040 Speaker 1: giving that sort of profound gift, like something that you 518 00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:24,560 Speaker 1: couldn't have even known to ask for. Yes, you picked 519 00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:28,640 Speaker 1: exactly the story that has all three in it, didn't you. 520 00:39:29,880 --> 00:39:32,360 Speaker 1: I just got lucky. I think we'll call that another 521 00:39:32,719 --> 00:39:42,320 Speaker 1: little bit of gracer serendipity. Yeah. This episode of Ephemeral 522 00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:46,760 Speaker 1: was written and assembled by Alex Williams, with producers Max 523 00:39:46,800 --> 00:39:50,560 Speaker 1: Williams and Trevor Young. The book we discussed today is 524 00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:54,000 Speaker 1: The Return of the Light, twelve tales from around the 525 00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:58,400 Speaker 1: world for the winter Solstice. Caroline has also authored the 526 00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:02,279 Speaker 1: collections Sun Story In the Light of the Moon and 527 00:40:02,880 --> 00:40:07,239 Speaker 1: The Storyteller's Goddess. Find them wherever books are sold and 528 00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:11,720 Speaker 1: learn more at Caroline mc vickar edwards dot com. Links 529 00:40:11,719 --> 00:40:16,280 Speaker 1: and more at our website Ephemeral dot Show. And however 530 00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:19,560 Speaker 1: you celebrate, I hope your Solstice is full of warmth, 531 00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:20,960 Speaker 1: light and grace