Look up!
April 8, 2024
Another in a series of observations of life as I know it.
Late one night when the wind was still
Daddy brought the baby to the window sill
To see a bit of heaven shoot across the sky
The one and only time daddy saw it fly
It came from the east just as bright as a torch
The neighbors had a party on their porch
Daddy rocked the baby, mother said amen
When Halley came to Jackson in 1910
-Mary Chapin Carpenter
~~~~~
As if on cue, the sun has reappeared in New England. It has been curiously absent since early March and had left no forwarding address. One assumes our solar friend was on extended holiday, perhaps in the farthest reaches of the Southern Hemisphere. Well, we all deserve a break and I’m willing to grant the chief fireball some respite. But timing is everything and she has emerged for her Big Moment. Today the sun and moon pass like ships in the night, with the moon getting a rare close up. A total eclipse.
I do not have eclipse glasses nor do I have the extra hours required to make a pinhole viewing contraption. As suggested, I will keep the dogs inside, just in case they might be tempted to lie on the grass and stare at the darkening sky. Frankly, I am not that worried about them. It’s the lunatics on Route 39 who will slam on the brakes and peer through the front windshield at 2:37pm. Note to self: stay inside with dogs. This solar light and dark show has captured the national attention. I think it’s just a welcome relief from toxic politics. Whatever. Hotel and motel rooms in Maine and Vermont were snapped up months ago at scalper’s prices. I hear the tiny Dew Drop Inn near St Johnsbury is letting out rooms for over $1000 for the night. The last time the DDI had visitors was in 1953 when Ike traveled north. This will keep the proprietor flush until the next lunar fly over in 2044.
There are midday eclipse parties and bars offering up Moontinis. Restaurants are briefly opening their patios for the day, with fire pits and loaner parkas. Target sold out its shelves of viewing glasses. Amazon will send a last minute drone delivery for the express price of $1.2m plus local tax. In short, the world will stop for the moon’s brief photobomb of its planetary cousin. Like the early indigenous peoples, we will marvel at this moment and wonder at its meaning. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the noted spiritualist, has offered up thoughts and prayers. Darkness will fall in the early afternoon hours. And some will be sore afraid. Perhaps folks will avert their eyes briefly from cellphone screens. Maybe we will all take a collective breath. Because it’s what we need to do. Nature has been damaged almost irreparably by mankind. We’ve landed on the moon’s surface, leaving our litter behind, just as we do here on earth. The sun, however, is the last frontier. The one we cannot breach, lest like Icharus we melt our wings on approach. Today the moon will eclipse the sun, literally having its own moment in the sun. The one thing we humans cannot do. And I am perfectly fine with that. The Man in the Moon deserves his day.
Did it take long to find me?
I asked the faithful light
Oh, did it take long to find me?
And are you gonna stay the night?
I'm bein' followed by a moonshadow
Moonshadow, moonshadow
Leapin' and hoppin' on a moonshadow
Moonshadow, moonshadow
-Cat Stevens
Caption: The Man in the Moon being struck by a spaceship