You might have read Annie Dillard’s work: An American Childhood; Teaching a Stone to Talk. I admit that I haven’t read her in a long time. She has an amazing brain, a way of seeing things that most of us do not. When Dillard takes a walk, the the world opens up to her, like it would never open to me. She sees beyond SEEING.
Here is Dillard on a topic, The Eclipse.
“Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse, as kissing a man does to marrying him, or as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane.” (Okay read it again. Think about it.)
The following sections appeared in the NEW YORK TIMES, and The Marginalian Magazine, MELISSA KIRSCH writing about The TOTAL ECLIPSE:
Totality’s power comes from how strange it is, how unlike anything else. This entirely natural event has a supernatural vibe.
The first time I (Kirsch) heard of an eclipse, I was in sixth grade. My science teacher, too aptly named Mr. Lux (“light,” in Latin), described the mechanics of the event, but what stayed with me, an anxious child, was not the idea of a world plunged into daytime darkness, but the risk of permanent retinal damage posed by looking directly at the eclipse. I couldn’t believe I was permitted proximity to this much peril, this much responsibility over my safety. One glance skyward and I could damage my eyesight forever. Why was I just learning about this now?
I didn’t think much of eclipses again until the very branded “Great American Eclipse” of 2017, for which I procured safety glasses and witnessed a few moments of the sun mostly disappearing on a crowded street corner in Manhattan, near my office. The experience was brief, strange, uncoordinated. A quick astronomy interlude then back to work.
This time around, I’ve been considering the eclipse the way I did the coronationof Charles III: It’s not an event of organic fascination for me, but there’s enough hype and chatter afoot that I want in. I’ll read up and geek out so that I understand its significance, so that I can be a part of the pop-up community that materializes when big things are happening. That’s the blessing and the curse of endless information:
If everyone’s talking about something, you can join in on the fun! Also, everyone’s always talking about something; why won’t they ever shut up.
Or, as a friend of mine put it grumpily, “Is this a disturbance in the heavens or a pure product of a grotesque news cycle where everything has to be a topic of ‘the national conversation’?”
I heard him, but given an option to quash my cynicism, I’ll always pursue it.
I got on a video chat with my friends Christa and Ali, umbraphiles who are traveling from their home in Amsterdam to an Airbnb in the Adirondacks for Monday’s spectacle. In 2017 they rented a house in the path of totality in Oregon, and immediately afterward booked accommodations for this year.
What had they seen last time that made them so eager to do it again?
They described the hours leading up to the eclipse, when the weather gets colder, when you’re suddenly aware of how much the sun is heating us. In Oregon, the streetlights had come on and the birds went silent at 10 in the morning. Kids got tired and more snugly, bedtime behavior triggered.
“I’m not a spiritual person. I don’t usually think about the bigger picture of what we’re swimming in,” Ali said. “But I felt that at the eclipse. I had a sense that I’m this one person in this huge thing.” That’s the feeling she’s hoping to encounter again. Christa compared the experience to the awe felt by astronauts seeing Earth from space for the first time. The End!
SO…Thanks again to The Marginalian Magazine for these interesting comments. And yes, there are many people who are really into this, like my son and daughter-in-law. I say GO FOR IT, and later, anyone reading this, please share with me what you learn. I would love to hear from you. Thanks.
A writer is someone who pays attention to the world — a writer is a professional observer,” Susan Sontag
12 Responses
Looking Good, tomorrow is the day, Beth
This is a timely post. For myself, I am looking at this as a natural occurrence in a much larger picture.
Hi Pat, THANKS FOR READING. We just went through the dimming of the light, not that much. Andrew and Amy drove to southern Illinois to really see it.
Hugs, Beth
love this!
Thanks Nancy, it was fun to write. And here in Chicago, I just experienced the dimming of the sun, now we are back to normal. Beth
Thanks, Nancy. What an amazing day. Beth
Today, I saw my fourth total eclipse of the sun. Each one was different. The first one came when I was a senior in high school, and I had no preconceived notions. I am not a spiritual person but what I experienced on a college campus in North Carolina in March of 1970 has stayed with me my entire life. I understand why your friends feel the way they do and I hope that they had better luck in the Adirondacks than I had in Rochester, NY. I am so sorry that the hundreds who watched with me today (the sun was totally covered by thick clouds) had such a massive buildup, thanks to incessant news coverage, that what did happen wasn’t at all what they expected. I heard people leaving, muttering “this was so overrated!” It was different, certainly, but it had its own majesty.
Thanks for sharing your feelings about the eclipse. I do think age can affect how we feel about life events. Such as this one.
All I saw in Chicago was some darkening of the sky, but enough to know something major was happening, Beth
In many ways, the sun and moon represent the ultimate powers. We could not live without either one of them. For me, they are true gods and to see them “conjoined” even for a few minutes was awesome.
Beautifully said, Laurie. We take for granted that the sun warm us, that the moon will appear on clear nights, that the heavens will not rain
down upon us with debris and danger. Thanks for reading, Beth
It was a strange and interesting sight, to see the sky go dark in the middle of the afternoon….
We only had a partial darkness, so not as dramatic as other parts of the country. STILL, the power of the universe is a
reminder to all of us…