Lunacy

Son: What is a new year, Mom?

Mom: It is a beginning of a solar year … a fresh cycle of earth around the sun.

Son: Why do we not measure time according to the moon?

Mom: Well because it is through sun that the world sees day and night. In solar cycles we make adjustment every four years for leap year so that seasons remain fixed between months. Lunar cycles are more fluid, in the sense seasons flow between months and are not fixed… sometimes winter happens in January, other times in June. It can get chaotic.

Son: But we will not be in the need to adjust if we embrace our inherent chaos.

Mom: There is a need for order in this world.

Son: Or the appearance of order?

Mom: In lunar calendar, days in a month are not whole numbers either. We run into decimal months.

Son: Well, I would say it is important to account for every drop in the ocean, to reach the vastness of our own thoughts.

Mom: Moon does not have a light of its own.

Son: It reflects the sun. Are not mirror images important, Mama… we understand our life in reflections on days past.

Mom: You are making a philosophical argument.

Son: I am making a rational argument. I need to talk to the President of our country.

Mom: Just do not go with these ideas to your dad. A century of thoughts has gone into timekeeping. We are getting into a black hole of arguments.

Son: It is about time to unravel the black holes.

Mom: As long as the earth is going around there will be life. We are getting into a needless argument.

Son: As long as the Moon reflects the sun there will be life too.

Mom: What happens if the Sun stops… have you ever wondered?

Son: What happens when moon stops rotation, Mom?

Mom: It will collide with the earth. Either we break or the moon breaks.

Son: Aha! So, we have it… hence the importance of the moon’s cycles.

Mom: Moon is more poetic than the sun… Our literature has made it one of its own. I give you that much.

Son: Now I know my resolution for this year. My new year resolution this solar year is to follow the lunar calendar in form and spirit.

Mom: So, you will read time different from your mother and your school?

Son: Time according to Einstein is the fourth dimension … I want to look at this world through new lenses, in new light… in moonlight.

Mom: How will you incorporate these changes in your life?

Son: First thing is to buy a lunar calendar, and a telescope to keep an eye out for Mr. Moon. There will be two datelines on my homework assignments, one according to solar calendar, and other according to lunar calendar. My new year’s will be different than yours. I will celebrate two birthdays every year, one with a new sun day and other with a new moon day. I will walk in and out of months in a matter of decimals hours and I will embrace December in the month of June.

Mom: Son, are you sure you do not want a visit to the shrink’s office?

Son: I intend to take the road less taken. It will make all the difference. Robert is my favorite poet.

Mom: Go on, my son. It will be a year of chaos for our roof. Learn to make peace with your father and bring all your questions to me. Do not take anything to him. He follows the ways of this world.

Son: Okay, I give you that much. We keep Dad out it. I say it would be a year of questioning.

Mom: (sighs!) It will be a year of too much cross-questioning.

Son: That makes it a year of a child.