A Seasonal Shift and Signal

Depending on when you are reading this, summer 2014 has already begun or is about to. We have scads of people who worry about the calculations required to indicate the precise moment when the transformation occurs, but I'm sort of with nature when it comes to the shifting of the seasons. It's worked out well for quite some time and I'm not all that comfortable thinking I can do better.

My brother Adam, Emperor of Central Jersey, not to be confused with our other brother, Kelly, who moonlights as the Pope, offered some brisk and somewhat brusque advice yesterday in his space in the ether about seasons change but the carping about the weather never seems to. Basically if want to kvetch or bitch, shaddup.

Not the worst advice to be offered for sure though at least in these parts today it's forecast to be especially lovely on the longest day of the year (the summer solstice) and a great way to mark the start of the season, around here if not near your house, is Norwich's 26th Annual Juneteenth Day Celebration, starting at 10 AM and lasting into the night.

We'll have enough for everybody here (not that I want you standing on my toes in Howard T. Brown Park because the Thames Harbor is even more beautiful when the skies are blue and the sun shines) but don't be surprised if there are celebrations and observances happening not too far from your house, wherever that might be. All you need to do is seek and you'll find.

As a kid growing up I always thought when you turned 11, your age should be pronounced eleventeen (not sure what I thought we should call you when you turned 12) in line with all the other 'teen' years to follow, so an inventive name like Juneteenth is right up my alley.

But underlying all the arts and crafts, music and dancing (don't worry, I am supplying none of it), exotic and down home foods is a serious cultural observance that, despite how we often and hard we smack one another around in public debate on every facet of our collective interactions, helps underscore the actual health and vibrancy of our shared history and heritage.

The farther out in space you travel the more alike we look-leading me to wonder if we're not somehow better off maintaining that perspective even when we have all returned to Earth. Look around the globe right now at the unrest in every corner that seems to come down in some way to "my flavor of different is better than yours" whether the fight is about religion, politics or pony rides(checking to see if you were still reading).

Too often the things we do speak so loudly I can't hear what we're trying to say. We are not yet the nation we should always aspire to be. But we're farther along on that path than we were yesterday and will be even better tomorrow, because of our ability to recognize, and also celebrate, our differences and use our diversity as a thread to weave the fabric of our nation and society even more closely together.
 -bill kenny