Mountain Views News          Saturday, April 9, 2016

14

THE WORLD AROUND US


LOCAL STARGAZERS JOIN WORLDWIDE COUNTERPARTS IN STAR PARTIES SATURDAY APRIL 16


Saturday, April 16 is Global Star Party night, when 
people all over the world will be looking skyward 
through telescopes—often for the first time in 
their lives. Several Los Angeles-area star parties 
are being held as part of this worldwide star-fest, 
one of a month-long series of events presented 
by the international organization Astronomers 
Without Borders (AWB) throughout April, 
which has been designated “Global Astronomy 
Month (GAM).” 

`For a global overview of April 16 events, see:

http://astronomerswithoutborders.org/
gam2016-programs/observing/2970-global-star-
party-for-gam-2016.html

LOCAL L.A.-AREA STAR PARTIES will include 
an active public observing night on the lawn 
of Griffith Observatory, with the assistance 
of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society, the 
Los Angeles Sidewalk Astronomers, and the 
Planetary Society. For more on the Griffith 
event, see: 

http://www.griffithobservatory.org/programs/
publictelescopes.html

IN THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY, the Old Town 
Sidewalk Astronomers will be setting up their 
telescopes in Monrovia, just after sunset April 16 
at the corner of Myrtle and Lime, as they typically 
do each month on the Saturday night nearest the 
first-quarter moon. For details on this and their 
Friday night star party in Old Town Pasadena, 
see: http://otastro.org

FOR L.A.-WESTSIDE RESIDENTS, a star party 
is scheduled on April 16, 7:00-10:00 p.m., in the 
parking lot of the Christian Science Church, 
7855 Alverstone Ave. at the corner of 79th St. 
in Westchester (one block west of Sepulveda, 
between 77th and 80th Streets). There is no 
charge, and refreshments will be served.

 Telescopes will be set up for everyone’s 
enjoyment. Even before sunset, the half-lit 
moon will be visible, with a line of spectacular 
craters along the “terminator,” or dividing line 
between its sunlit and dark sides. Then as the sky 
darkens, planets Jupiter and Mars will emerge 
from the dusk, followed by the brighter stars and 
nebulae. 

 Children and adults will receive coaching from 
volunteer amateur astronomers to learn how to 
use a telescope and better understand the night 
sky.

 Bob Eklund, host of the Westchester star 
party, emphasizes that while telescopes are being 
provided by experienced amateur astronomers, 
anyone having a telescope of his or her own is 
welcome to bring it.

 “Bring the children, learn astronomy together, 
and enjoy the sky,” Eklund adds. “And if it’s a 
cloudy or rainy night, come anyway—we’ll have 
an indoor learning session designed especially 
for young people (of all ages).”

 For questions about the Westchester event, 
contact host Bob Eklund, (310) 216-5947, 
beklund@sprynet.com 


Laura and Bob Eklund with telescope at a Westchester star party. Photo by Aaron Dominguez.


OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

CHRISTOPHER Nyerges

RAINDANCE

ARE COWS REALLY HOLY?

[The following is an excerpt 
from Christopher Nyerges’ 
latest book, “Squatting in Los 
Angeles: Life on the Edge,” 
which is available on Kindle 
or from the store at www.
SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.] 

 It was Tuesday, August the 14th, 1984, the last 
day I’d be working with some of the children at the 
day camp sponsored by the City of Pasadena. After 
their lunch, I began by showing my group of children 
some wild edible plants. These were mostly plants 
that I brought to camp, because, remember, the day 
camp was held at Victory Park, which is a large park 
west of Pasadena High School, and it was mostly 
lawn with some introduced trees and bushes along 
the edges. 

 Next we practiced some Indian sign language of 
the Plains. 

 After that I showed the children some of the buffalo 
gourd leaves which I’d brought. I demonstrated 
how to make soap by wetting a few leaves and then 
vigorously rubbing a few between my hands. It’s not 
the best plant for making soap, but it was all that I 
could collect for that day. Each child then made soap 
from this plant and in their very excited way they 
cleansed their hands, splashing and yelling as they 
did so. 

 The day before, I’d hinted that we might do a rain-
dance, and now, as the children were returning to 
their circle, a few were now asking with their eager 
voice, “Are we going to do the rain-dance now?” 
Once they were all seated, I explained that a rain 
dance is actually not just one thing, and that it could 
take many forms and is usually a part of a larger 
ceremony. 

 I didn’t have a specific “formula” or procedure, but 
rather I was attempting to share several key elements 
with the children. 

 I removed my hand-made clay pipe from its 
container and filled it with tobacco. I carefully lit it 
and puffed on it. The children were silent and the 
teen-age counselors were not sure what to say or do. 

Once the pipe was smoking well, I stood in the center 
and blew smoke to the four directions and to the sky 
and to the earth. I explained to the children that I 
was offering my smoke as a way of giving respect 
and thanks, in an attitude of humility. I didn’t use 
the word “God,” but indicated that this was giving 
respect and thanks to a higher intelligence, a great 
spirit of the universe. The children watched in awe 
with wide eyes. I could tell that they’d never seen 
anything like this before. 

 Then I passed the pipe around the circle for each 
child to take a little puff. Each child nervously smoked 
the pipe as it went around, and I told them not to 
inhale. I explained as we did this that the smoking of 
the pipe was a traditional sign of our friendship and 
unity. 

 Once this was done, I conducted half the children 
in dancing around the outer circle, as the other half 
clapped their hands. We all chanted a simple rain 
chant that I led, and the we all let up a cheer for rain. 

My time with the children was over and they all 
departed for their next session. 

 “Is it really going to rain?” a few children curiously 
asked me as they departed. 

 “Of course,” I replied with assurance. “It will 
rain by Saturday.” Of course, I was just expressing 
confidence. I really had no idea whether or not this 
would be “effective,” and I’d not checked any weather 
patterns. For that matter, I’d not even planned to do 
the rain dance until that morning. 

 A heavy rain fell early the following morning. 

 By the time I arrived at the day camp on noon 
Wednesday, only a drizzle continued to fall, and 
most of the day camp activities had been moved 
indoors. 

 Some of the children yelled out to me: “We made 
rain! We made rain!” I quickly pointed out that 
we didn’t make anything. Rather, I told them, our 
request was answered. 

 A few children asked with open eyes, “It rained 
from our rain dance, didn’t it?” I answered what I 
believed to be true. “Yes,” I told them. 

 Pursuing the premise that there was a relationship 
between the dance and the rain, I attempted to 
delineate my learning: 

1)We washed ourselves before our little ceremony. 

2) We requested rain in an attitude of humility. 

3) We shared the pipe in a posture of unity and 
friendship. 

4) We sang, chanted, and danced our ceremony not 
“by the book” but with feeling. 

5) And perhaps most important, the ceremony was 
conducted by children. These children were young 
enough to still be uncorrupted by the limitations 
of adult minds. They had never been told that they 
couldn’t invoke rain. So I believe that the innocence 
and lack of prejudice on the children’s part was a key 
factor in the apparent “success” of our rain dance. 

 I found that this episode forced me to look at 
myself and the world very differently. What had 
happened here? It was the middle of August when 
there is usually no precipitation, and rain came 
within 15 or so hours of doing a rain dance. 

 This led me to research the many recorded 
episodes of rain-making and rain ceremonies among 
Native American traditions, and try to find some 
common elements. Eventually, I compiled a file full 
of newspaper accounts and interviews and book 
excerpts all about rain ceremonies. 

 The more I looked into it, and inquired, the key 
idea to keep in mind was that personal attitude was 
the essential ingredient, and that “asking for” or 
“praying for” rain was an inaccuracy. 

 It also became clear to me that it is actually a 
blessing that most people are unaware that they have 
such a power over the elementals of nature. You 
could say that our ignorance protects us from the 
irresistible urge to abuse such ability. 

 I spoke to Dr. George Fishbeck, L.A. area 
weatherman and meteorologist, and he told me 
that he noted a storm off California’s coast at 7 p.m. 
Tuesday. That evening by 11 p.m., Dr. Fishbeck said 
that he knew rain would fall, but not where. He was 
calling it a freak storm. Someone had called Dr. 
Fishbeck and told him about the rain dance, so he 
already knew about it. He believed that there was 
no connection between the rain dance and the rain, 
discounting the ability of what he called “prayer” 
to affect the weather. Still, Fishbeck told me that he 
recognized and respected the sacred nature of the 
Southwestenr Indians’ rain dances and ceremonies, 
having lived among the New Mexico Indians for two 
years as an anthropologist. 

 In the Los Angeles Times of August 16, 1984 on 
the front page, it read “First Rain of Season Snarls 
Traffic, Causes Blackout.” The report read, “The 
first rainstorm of the season struck the Los Angeles 
area with surprisingly heavy showers Wednesday 
morning, spawning a rash of minor accidents on 
slick freeways and power failures affecting thousands 
of customers. Rainfall at the Los Angeles Civic 
Center measured .40 of an inch, nearly double the .21 
of an inch recorded by this date last season, before 
tapering off in mid-morning.” The report talked 
about auto accidents, blackouts, and flash floods up 
in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, and clear 
up in Las Vegas.

As an amateur wordsmith, I am fascinated with 
words and phrases. I love my cell phone because 
I have a dictionary and thesaurus all ready for my 
personal touch and I can research any word or 
phrase I hear.

 You can tell a lot about a person by the words 
and phrases they use. Of course, most use words 
and phrases they have no idea what they mean. 
Perhaps they heard somebody else say these 
words or phrases and so they incorporated them 
into their vocabulary, which, says more about 
them than anything else.

 I grew up in a very strict Amish/Mennonite 
community where speech was a very guarded 
activity. Although not Amish or Mennonite, I 
still had to be careful what I said and how I said 
it. Curse words were completely off limit. No 
circumstance ever existed, according to these 
people, warranting any curse word.

` My maternal grandfather was like this. He 
never had much to say and did not say that very 
often. I remember one time sitting on the front 
porch with my grandfather and his brother and we 
spent the whole afternoon together and probably 
did not say five words between the three of us. 
My grandfather certainly was not outspoken in 
anything.

 Whenever he got angry with my grandmother, 
he simply would leave the house, walk down to 
the barn and who knows what he did venting his 
anger at the time.

 Venting anger is quite an occupation these 
days. Whether a religious venue, a political venue 
or just some educational venue, people are filled 
with anger and are trying to vent it somehow and 
from what I see much of it is not working.

 An old saying goes, “Sticks and stones may 
break my bones but names will never hurt me.” 
Yet, names do really hurt us.

 One phrase my grandfather used a lot was, 
“holy cow.” He was a farmer so I instinctively 
thought he was talking about his cows. Why 
his cows were holy and others were not was 
something I could never comprehend. But, he 
was my grandfather.

 I still remember the first time I heard him say 
that phrase; “Holy cow, it’s hot outside today.”

When he said it, I was rather confused. What does 
a cow have to do with it being hot outside and are 
cows really holy? It just did not make any sense 
to me.

 Another favorite phrase was, “Holy cow, I’m 
tired.”

 Again, what does a cow have to do with him 
being tired? Maybe he worked a lot with the cows. 
I know he had about a half a dozen dairy cows 
and he milked them all by hand. Maybe that is 
what he was talking about.

 But the thing that really got me was what in the 
world does “holy” have to do with a cow?

 As I got older, I began to realize that “holy” 
and “cow” had nothing to do with each other. It 
was just a phrase my grandfather used, and, to put 
it mildly, it really meant nothing at all.

 As I get older the more I realize that people 
say things they really do not mean. In fact, most 
people do not really think about what they are 
saying let alone know what they are saying.

As an amateur wordsmith myself, I like to parse 
my words very carefully. I want to know what 
I am saying and say what I am thinking. Of 
course, according to the Gracious Mistress of the 
Parsonage, thinking is not at the top of my list of 
activities. I cannot disagree with her on that one.

 Yes, words do matter. I need to be careful 
what I am saying, the more important it is, the 
more I need to be careful to understand what the 
other person is hearing. One of the things I have 
learned as a husband is that what I am saying to 
my wife may not be what my wife is hearing.

 Yes, sticks and stones can break my bones, but 
that is nothing to what harm words can do.

 At a real desperate point in my life, I responded 
to an incident involving my wife and almost 
automatically, the phrase, “Holy Cow,” came 
tumbling out of my mouth. Needless to say, it was 
the last time anything like that ever happened.

My wife looked at me with one of “those looks,” 
and said, “Holy what?”

 How can you explain something you do not 
understand yourself? She looked at me, I look 
back at her with one of those blank stares I am 
famous for, and had no idea what she was talking 
about.

 She had no idea what I was talking about and 
so I thought at least we were even. But not so.

 I had to promise her “and cross my heart and 
hope to die,” never to use such a phrase again. 
“That phrase,” she said most defiantly, “is not 
permitted in this house.” She said it in such a way 
that I have, to this very day, never questioned her 
on it and have never used that phrase again.

 James warned about this when he wrote, “Even 
so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth 
great things. Behold, how great a matter a little 
fire kindleth!” (James 3:5).

 I do not know if cows are holy or not, but I will 
never put those two words together in a phrase 
whatsoever as long as the sun shines.

 The Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family 
of God Fellowship in Silver Springs Shores. Call 
him at 352-687-4240 or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.
net. The church web site is www.whatafellowship.
com.

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