Eating sunbeams

and time traveling jam

It takes just over eight minutes for light from the sun to travel the ninety three million miles to the earth. This energy, combined with carbon dioxide is how plants make sugar and oxygen through photosynthesis. This happens constantly.

This means that it happened back in June when my wife was harvesting the strawberries in the yard. It’s an odd thought to have but true just the same. When we harvest plant food, we are harvesting energy from the sun. Strawberries are sugar batteries.

I love sweetness. I crave it, live for it really. We have a yard for gathering sweetness. We have peach, apple, plum and cherry trees. There are berry bushes everywhere. In addition to collecting sweetness, our kitchen is set up for preserving it. Best of all, I have a tongue for its enjoyment.

It’s an odd thing, that the irrational experience of pleasure comes indirectly from the sun. According to the Greeks, Apollo was the god of the sun and the god of reason. In my life, I’ve never met a reasonable pie.…