A pretty pebble

The grandchildren came to visit for the Christmas holiday. At dinner Sam, the three-year-old, remembered putting eggs in cups "a long time ago". His grandmother deciphered "putting eggs in cups" as "coloring Easter eggs" and said yes, we'll be doing that again in just a few months.

Sam has yet to learn of yearly events.

A couple times during his visit, Sam said he wanted to go in the pool. It's too cold, he was told. He'd have to wait until Summer.

He has yet to learn of the yearly cycle of seasons.

He gets a few years older, he'll learn these things by experience.

Me, I've seen enough business cycles to think that when car companies are hawking interest rates below 2% in TV ads, the recession is over. But it took half my life to figure that out, and we're talking cycles of ten years or less.

Who will recognize 50-year, 80-year, 100-year cycles? Everyone will have doubts.

Who will recognize the 2000-year Cycle of Civilization? You won't see it if you expect to find it the way we find annual cycles and business cycles.

Instead, carry the C of C like a pretty pebble in your pocket that you want to pull out sometimes to look at. See if the world makes more sense when you think of things in the context of a cycle of civilization.