That Which I Cannot Change

We are in Fort Nelson today, well towards the land of the midnight sun. The sun set here last night at 10:26 PM and rose again at 4:00 AM. Between sunset and sunrise, there is no real darkness, only a deepening twilight until the sun breaks the eastern horizon in the morning. The daylight sun does not cross the sky, but rather prescribes a semi-circle through the sky, rising in the northeast, moving to the south during the day, and setting in the northwest at night.

The irony in all of this is in the Aurora Borealis. A powerful sunstorm over the last few days has charged the northern sky, making the northern lights visible all over Canada, except, of course, here in the north where the sun makes the sky too bright to see the powerful interaction between the sun's ejection and the earth's magnetic field. This is, perhaps, one of those times when life just works this way.

I don't really mind; nor, apparently, does Katherine. The best time to see the Northern Lights is around 2:00 AM. When we are on the road, I am generally in bed by 10:00 or 11:00 PM, so it wouldn't really matter; getting sleep is important when I have to drive the next day. If I were at home it might be different; 2:00 AM is not in the least unusual for me there. Katherine often wakes up in the middle of the night yet she seems fairly unaffected by missing the opportunity to see the stellar light show.

In many ways it is nice to be so unbothered by this kind of irony. It happens a lot to me, where things that would work for any other reason don't seem to work any more. I just don't get upset that much. For example, this morning I woke up and Katherine had been kind enough to get me some coffee and breakfast. As I slid up the bed into a sitting position, the sheets grabbed my underwear, sliding them down as I slid up. So I ate breakfast with an uncovered posterior. Oh well. No worries. I had a lovely breakfast in bed.

This kind of unaffected attitude is new to me. I would not say I am a lot more mellow than I was in the past, I've just learned not to get so upset about things I cannot control. I can't do anything about the night light here; in fact that is the whole reason behind this trip, to see the midnight sun. I can't be too bothered about underwear position. It if really bugs me I can fix it. I seem to have learned that there is no point in getting upset about that which you cannot change, and changing when I need new underwear.