January 5, 2015

The full moon has flown west toward Asia. And now I am following.

This will be a journey through space AND time. When I arrive I will not only have travelled about 7000 miles west (about 28 percent of the way around the earth), but I will also be 14 hours in Bemidji’s future.

Flying to Europe it is easy to understand TIME ZONES. The further East you go the later it gets and it is very quickly tomorrow.

But flying to Asia is different. The west coast of America is earlier than the rest of us. Hawaii is even earlier. So it would seem that going further west one would encounter yesterday. But instead, landing in Shanghai, Tokyo or Taipei, it is also tomorrow.

Coming back from Asia you often arrive on the west coast before you departed.

This is because out in the middle of the empty Pacific ocean is the mysterious International date line, where time changes by 24 hours. If this line were to pass through an island, on the east of the island it might be noon Tuesday and if so on the west of the island it would be noon Wednesday.

And so Guam is the place where the sun first rises over the USA. And all of us are later in the day.