CHRONOSOPHY: MAKING PEACE WITH THE PASSAGE OF TIME

The solstice is a moment to contemplate the passage of the seasons and our place in time. As a society, we have become time-illiterate. We live in active denial of aging. Our collective sense of process, sequence and consequence is being undermined by digital technology, which creates the illusion that time is no longer relevant. Yet time flows inexorably around and through us, and our willful defiance of it cuts us off from deep truths about ourselves and the cosmos. An understanding of the geologic history of the landscape may be the starting point for a personal reconciliation with Time.

Marcia Bjornerud is Professor of Geology and Environmental Studies at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Bjornerud’s research focuses on the physics of earthquakes and mountain building, and she combines field-based studies of bedrock geology with quantitative models of rock mechanics. She is the author of a popular book, Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth (Perseus/Basic).

Music: Gerri Friedberg
Service Leader: Cyndy Stiehl