Ed Said - That's life I suppose

When Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes around 3000 years ago, little did he know his wise words would become the lyrical counterpoint to one of the most popular and thought-provoking folk tunes of all time. Pete Seeger first wrote and recorded Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) back in the 1950s, reaching its peak in the mid 1960s when folk-rock legends The Byrds took it to the top of the US charts. It was also a number one record in New Zealand.

Considered to be the wisest man that ever lived, and one of the wealthiest, Solomon (or King Solomon) would have had little need for the substantial lyric royalties, but the words themselves would ensure, all these generations later, we had an enduring message that spoke of the human dilemma which was apparent to him even then. Paraphrasing Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 we read: ‘For everything there is a season/A time to be born and a time to die/A time to plant and a time to harvest/A time to cry and a time to laugh/A time to embrace and a time to turn away/A time to keep and a time to throw away/A time to be quiet and a time to speak/A time for love and a time for hate/A time for war and a time for peace’.

Solomon’s analysis of life is biographical, reflective – he’s been there and done that – and is teaching us much about life’s meaning through his own experiences. The seasons he talks about are a metaphor for significant times and experiences in the journey of our own lives, and why they happen.

Just as we have seasons to our own lives, the Earth too has seasons. Life is seasons within seasons. But like the seasons of our lives, winter, spring, summer and autumn are also experiencing change, challenge, and causing confusion, where the effects of global warming are making things more and more ‘unseasonable’, and Mother Nature is starting to throw out a few distress flares. As we all become more aware of global warming we can see how nature’s usual cycles are a bit off – warmer winters, drier summers, changing habitats and ecosystems on land and in the sea, plants and animals changing behaviours. It’s fascinating, yet disconcerting.

What gets me thinking like this? On a recent trip south I discovered Dunedin’s Beam Me Up Bagels, with its outer space-themed menu and trendy industrial decor. I had the Darth Bacon bagel sandwich and a flat white. When leaving, I stood outside for a moment in the alcove of the doorway, out of the cold and wet, and noticed a monarch butterfly next to me on the ground, wings together and vertical, sheltered from the rain on just a thin dry wedge of concrete. Unusual, I thought to myself. This is the end of May. I had to check – yes, it was alive. Then last week, nearer the end of June, outside my dining room window I saw a monarch flitting from shrub to shrub, energised by late morning sunshine. What’s going on? I learn that while we usually see monarchs yipping about in numbers from September to March, in the colder months they hibernate, sometimes in colonies. They can spend the colder months hanging, exploring, then hanging again. But monarch numbers have dropped by huge amounts globally, that includes in New Zealand, and experts are trying to find out why. Global warming is a prime suspect.

It was interesting to hear American-German author and illustrator Eric Carle passed away in May. While we fondly remember The Very Hungry Caterpillar, we often forget about the beautiful butterfly at the end. It’s a simple and endearing tale. As children we were delighted by the caterpillar whose smorgasbord ended in a stomach ache. Years later, as adults, we understand the message of metamorphosis and change to maturity. Eventually the seasons have come around – for the butterfly it is a time to live, and for its creator, a time to die. And that’s life I suppose.

Rich Pooley
Editor