Eclipse

On this night, the moon, round and pale against the sky, glows softly from within, obscuring the familiar faces and features of its surface within the brilliant perfect circle. And though it is whiter than the sun - illuminated from beyond our horizon and understanding - it's light is kinder. We can look directly into it and wonder about these moments that are the gifts of an uncertain universe.

The patterns of our own small world - spring into summer, sunrise to sunset - are no less amazing, but seem more within our grasp by their mere frequency. This night though, is a reminder that the place we inhabit is part of something bigger than we can imagine. These events are the timekeepers of a greater awareness – the ticking of a slower clock that marks the birth and death of things much too old and far away for us to know of, much less remember.

On our path to great societal advancement, this odd celestial event has itself been eclipsed by the illusion of our individual importance. The lights of our cities and streetlamps, nightlights and cell phones, have replaced the heavenly bodies that once gave us cause to wonder about a world larger than ourselves. Of what interest is the shadow of the earth on the moon against the prices of corporate stocks broadcast to the world at large and intercepted by our portable telephones?

There was a time when the world was mostly dark at night. And every tribe or village, or pioneer town or budding city would have been alerted by their watchmen and service people who make the night their business. Men and women, old and young, would have woken from their comfortable lives, and the comfortable assurance of their own significance to gather on a clear dark night - to watch the disappearing circle of a perfect full moon and wonder about how much of tomorrow they had taken for granted.