I sit in my office in front of my computer reading stuff from Discover Magazine about the “Great American Eclipse of 2017″. A friend of mine emails me with information about the eclipse in Kentucky and offers me a pair of eclipse viewing glasses. The articles I read all go on and on about the mystery of eclipses and the fact that hundreds of thousands of people will run all over the U.S. and the world to view this one in its totality – in the middle of the umbra. Well, damn, I’m in the 61% penumbra zone.
But, you know what, I just can’t seem to get all that excited. I mean, I’ve never seen a solar eclipse – even at 61% – I should be excited. I tried to film the last lunar eclipse that came our way. What’s wrong with me? Jaded by the years (75 of them) – maybe. Letting my contrarian soul out of its bottle? Maybe.
My friend sent me some glasses and they should get here tomorrow. The eclipse is on a Monday so my grandsons will be in school. They will probably be excited and their science teachers will likely have them building pinhole viewing boxes. I guess I’ll use the glasses – no not guess, I know I will. But what’s this sort of “so what” attitude that seems to have enveloped me?
You know – I really have no idea. But I’ll bet that I really do enjoy the eclipse.
Hmmm, I thought I was the only one who has a ho-hum attitude about the coming eclipse. Until now I’ve kept it to myself. I know someone who is traveling 900 miles for a better viewing location and all I’ll do is step outside. My dad, who would have been 100 yrs. old this year, talked about the mesmerizing total eclipse he saw as a child and thought it was a special moment. What’s wrong with me? Let me know if you figure it out.
I dunno Mercy – maybe it’s that we are so inundated with stuff that is more esoteric than eclipses – and much of the mystery that our parents and grandparents felt about eclipses is gone – way too much fact?
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Hmmm, I thought I was the only one who has a ho-hum attitude about the coming eclipse. Until now I’ve kept it to myself. I know someone who is traveling 900 miles for a better viewing location and all I’ll do is step outside. My dad, who would have been 100 yrs. old this year, talked about the mesmerizing total eclipse he saw as a child and thought it was a special moment. What’s wrong with me? Let me know if you figure it out.
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I dunno Mercy – maybe it’s that we are so inundated with stuff that is more esoteric than eclipses – and much of the mystery that our parents and grandparents felt about eclipses is gone – way too much fact?
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Your reasoning makes sense to me. Mary
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Mary – so Merci is you! Makes perfect sense.
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