Solstice

"The nourishment is palatable."
- Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States

I am always a bit sad to celebrate 21st June. Although it's the 'official' start to summer, here in Alaska it's already been awesome weather for a bit or still snowing. What most people forget is after today, daylight starts fading. The earth tilts back towards to the infinite blackness away from the sun.

I've always considered myself a glass-half-full type. Yet on this day I know the sunlight will be dwindling. It may not be as noticeable to those closer to the equator, but our sunlight is a very precious commodity that can only be enjoyed about 40 percent of the year.

Growing up, I usually attended school in the darkness and came home in the darkness. So summer was an important time to stay up and do summer activities; like camping, hunting, fishing, four-wheeling.

When I became more independent, summer solstice was a day that the celebrations continued well into the wee hours. It's light out! Stay up all night! Drink more out of the keg!

Funny how today was just a little bit of a blah day. The weather was overcast and a bit rainy, and just cold enough not to be outside for too long. Just with the passage of time, last year I visited three bars and drank too many trashcans and had sun sickness the next day (read: dehydrated from all the sugery drinks).

This year I watched someone bake Amish Friendship bread. It's a pretty involved process, asking one to let the yeast multiply for ten days and mushing it every day until that point. Then add some more ingredients and dole out three one-cup servings into separate bags. More milk and flour and sugar is added to the mix and it produces two loaves worth.

The interesting part though, is the extra servings are supposed to be given out to friends/coworkers/family members and one cannot use the friend who handed out the bread mixture. They follow the same process and then one's mother's brother's grandnephew's sister-in-law's beta fish has a mixture. What a novel concept! Friendship bread for everyone!

And then I realized, this process is about the equivalent of email forwards. Or chain letters, which I vaguely remember in the third grade. With warnings that you MUST forward to 20 people or YOU WILL BE STABBED BY THE GHOST OF THE PERSON WHO STARTED THIS CHAIN LETTER TOMORROW NIGHT AT 2200 HOURS BECAUSE THEY WERE MURDERED AT THAT EXACT HOUR. You know how that goes.

Instead of ghosts, you have delicious bread! I think this is much better than an email forward. Or a chain letter. Does the United States Postal Service even exist anymore?