Children of the Days Read Online Free PDF Page A

Then he measured the distance between the two cities in steps, and with that information tried to calculate the size of the world’s waist.
    He was fifty miles off.

June 23
F IRES
    At midnight tonight, big bonfires are lit.
    Crowds gather around them.
    This night will cleanse houses and souls. Old junk and old desires, things and feelings worn out by time, are tossed into the fire to make room for the new to be born.
    From the north this custom spread all over the world. It was always a pagan holiday. Always, until the Roman Catholic Church decided tonight would be Saint John’s Eve.

June 24
T HE S UN
    Today, starting at dawn, the sun festival known as Inti Raymi is celebrated on the steppes and peaks of the Andes.
    At the beginning of time, the earth and sky were in darkness. There was only night.
    When the first woman and the first man emerged from the waters of Lake Titicaca, the sun was born.
    Viracocha, god of gods, invented the sun so that woman and man could enjoy the sight of each other.

June 25
T HE M OON
    Chinese poet Li Po died in the year 762 on a night like this one.
    A drowning.
    He fell from the boat when he tried to hug the moon reflected in the waters of the Yangtze.
    Li Po had sought out the moon on other nights.
    Â 
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  I drink alone .
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  No friend is near .
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  I raise my cup ,
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  toast the moon
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  and my shadow .
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Now we are three .
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  But the moon does not drink
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  and my shadow only imitates me .

June 26
T HE K INGDOM OF F EAR
    Today is International Day Against Torture.
    By tragic irony, the Uruguayan military dictatorship was born the following day in 1973 and soon turned the country into one huge torture chamber.
    For obtaining information torture was useless or practically useless, but it was very useful for sowing fear, and fear obliged Uruguayans to live by silence or lies.
    While in exile, I received an unsigned letter:
    Â 
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Lying sucks, and getting used to lying sucks .
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  But worse than lying is teaching to lie .
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  I have three children .

June 30
A N UISANCE I S B ORN
    Today in 1819 Juana Manso was baptized in Buenos Aires.
    The holy waters were to set her on the path to meekness, but Juana Manso was never meek.
    Bucking wind and tide she founded secular schools in Argentina and Uruguay where girls and boys studied together, religion was not a required course and corporal punishment was banned.
    She wrote the first textbook on Argentine history plus several other works, among them a novel that derided the hypocrisy of married life.
    She founded the first public library in the country’s interior.
    She got divorced when divorce did not exist.
    The Buenos Aires papers took great pleasure in mocking her.
    When she died, the Church refused her a tomb.

July 2
O LYMPIC P REHISTORY
    During the 1904 Olympic Games in the American city of St. Louis, a series of special competitions took place over the course of what they called “Anthropology