Mention the word "age" and some people react in different ways. Some do not use the word, some do not talk about it, and some even make themselves sick over it. The word is used to describe one's birthday number, but a person's "age" is really how we measure and count time on planet earth. Birthdays are celebrated on earth every 365 days because that is the time it takes for planet earth to make one complete orbit of the sun which we call one year or 12 months. In essence, your birthday number describes how many times one has traveled in orbit around the sun. The Scientific community has always used the word "age" to describe long periods of time such as the Ice Age that lasted thousands of years.
Instead of thinking our birthday number as related to "age" let us explore how that number is related to the planet we live on and how it is all related in harmony. The first people on earth looked to the horizon where heaven and earth meet and the sun rose to start a new day. They then looked to the horizon again to see the day give way to the night. As civilization progressed, man learned about the ways of planet earth and the heavens. It set the stage as to how we measure time on planet earth today and how we define our birthday number.
In earth's orbit around the sun, it also spins on it's axis which takes 24 hours to complete one revolution and represents the source of our 12 double hour clock we call AM and PM. The 12 month year represents the length of days (365) for earth to orbit the sun. The 12 month year is broken down to 7 weekly days. The hourly clock is broken down to 60 minutes in the hour and 60 seconds in a minute. The numbers 12, 24 and 60 are of significance because they can be divided into 360 evenly. Why is that important? Well 360 is the number of degrees in a circle and although earth's orbit around the sun is more oval shape it still contains 360 degrees.
The numbers 7 and 12 have cultural, religious, historical and mathmatical significance. The number 7: There are the 7 deadly sins, 7 virtues, 7 sacraments, 7 heavens in Islam, 7 colors in the rainbow, 7 days in the week and on the 7th day the Lord rested. The number 12: There were 12 Apostles, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 houses of the Zodiac, 12 months in the year, 12 Olympian Gods 12 in a dozen and the 12 double hour clock. The number 12 also represents harmony, balance, completion of a cycle, cosmic balance and completeness. Everything is in harmony in measuring time on planet earth and it plays an orderly role in our every day life. We can not see it and some times it is not even in our thoughts. But time is the only thing that separates us from the moment we are born to the moment we no longer exist.
Earthly time began in 3760 B.C. with the calendar and at one time man used the motion of earth in another way to celebrate certain events. Temples were built on foundations that were oriented to the four corners of earth when on equinox day the sun would strike an object on the temple located in a certain place which would be the start of their celebration. It was another way of using the motion of planet earth to tell when the time was ready to start their celebration. And as of this day, we here on planet earth still use the spring equinox to determine what day we celebrate Easter Sunday. We celebrate Easter on the first Sunday, after the first full Moon, after the spring equinox. As a result, Easter is always on a Sunday, but on a different date. The spring equinox takes place on March 21 and the autumn equinox takes place on September 22. The day of the equinox is the only time the sun rises directly on an eastern line.
Why not take a look at what our birthday number would look like if we lived on another planet. If we lived on the planet Mercury, the nearest planet to the sun. It takes Mercury 88 earth days to complete one orbit around the sun, so if we lived on that planet our birthday number would be much greater. If we lived on the planet Jupiter, we would celebrate our birthday number every 4400 earth days because that is the time it takes for Jupiter to orbit the sun, so, our birthday number would be much, much smaller. How that fits in with life as we know it is unknown.
There is still much we have to learn about planet earth and the cosmos and something new is discovered almost every day. Alien life on other worlds are actively being talked about. So, let us explore another way to think of our birthday number and not use the word "age." Think about the true meaning of our birthday number as the way we measure earthly time and how it affects our life and everyday living. Perhaps one day someone will discover that the important numbers noted herein contain a secret code that unlocks the secrets of how best to take care of the planet we live on. extend life and find the true meaning of life itself.
President John F. Kennedy in a speech given at the American University in Washington, D.C in 1963 said as part of his address: We all inhabit this small planet, We all breathe the same air, We all cherish our children's future, and we are all mortal. The speech became known as Kennedy's "peace speech." It was a political speech but his above statement was above politics and referred to the human race that lives on planet earth.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
