Another Day

Another day! Or as my Wallace says, “Another chance to get it right!” Some of us don’t get up in the morning and that is not from sheer lassitude. It may be because the night shift does not allow it. For those who do get up, whether with the rising sun or not, the traditional English greeting of “Good Morning”, abbreviated to “Morning” or its lazier version “Mornin’” is heard in that early time all across the world. As a matter of interest, you may be intrigued by how other languages speak this simple greeting. In Lithuania: “Labas Rytas”; in Italy: “Buongiorno”; in Holland: “Goedmorgen”; in Hawai: “Aloha Kakahiaka”; in Sweden: “God Morgon”; in Uzbekistan: “Xayrlitong”; in Scotland: “Maidam Mhath” and in Wales: “Bora Da”. I leave the pronunciation to the expert speakers. This short list illustrates a couple of things. First, the Welsh are not revenging themselves on the English in all their phrases and second, it is universally accepted as a greeting of good will, a beginning. The word “Hello” is also universal but it carries a neutral connotation. It does not express the hint of bonhomie conveyed by “Good Morning”. A song in the movie “Singing in the Rain” may be an apotheosis of that sentiment.

I think about things like that. In solar sequence around the world these murmurs occur each day in every language in a common ritual. Almost all of us are stimulated to this address whether encouraged by temple bells, a partner stirring, bird song, the blasted alarm clock or the even more hated leaf blower. Sirens have lately become a more common provocation. I like to think of them as help on the way rather than as a shout that something terrible has happened. In any case a greeting is forthcoming.

Where sunny days are the rule, the charm of sunrise may not be so welcoming. When it is 115° F by nine o’clock in the morning day after day, the experience of a sunrise may be completely different than that in a garden above the sea from a redwood deck beneath a wisteria pergola in California. It is pretty easy to embrace a yogic attitude to that. Sometimes a cloudy day is a relief where the sun shines so unrelentingly. Can excessive vitamin D be a threat? UV rays are a different story.

Try to describe a sunrise. There are so many. Some are definitely memorable and they often include another person, on a mountaintop, in a tent, down on the dock, from the bedroom, from a plane or shipboard. Something about the new day promotes a momentary and genial lapse into cordiality. The colors in the clouds may be fiery or fierce, a mist may obscure definition or the foreground outline may be dramatic. When all is said and done, sunrise is a feeling. What it says is I am here. The breathing life we are living is worthy of shared acknowledgement. It’s a privilege to exchange greetings on the occasion. Sign language or gesture suffices. To say “Good Morning” is a celebration of something so ordinary that we can forget how meaningful and symbolic it is. It contains all we are. Together we can try to get it right.