Totality: Celestial event offers a needed perspective

It should be clear today when the moon blots out the sun.

Many who live in or near the path of totality will stop everything, even putting their phones down momentarily to look up, or down at a piece of pin-pricked paper, to trace the path of the solar eclipse.

Celestial events have a way of giving man pause. When our ancestors were better able to see the sky than we are now they set their clocks to it, their calendars, their seasons and holidays. Growing up in today's world it is hard to imagine someone being capable of knowing where they are in the world simply by looking up. Sure, our Boy Scouts can find true north and point out the constellations by name, but nothing like the ancient seafarers who charted the world under the night sky.

We spend so much time these days wondering where we are in the world as individuals, as unique selves. We are very much apart from one another in a time when science and technology have made it so that we can live freer and longer and the world supports so many more of us than at any time before.

Our very ancient ancestors might have cowered in fear, or called it a sign from an angry god whenever such an event happened. Now we cower in fear, if only inside our own heads, each time we turn on the TV and see events such as those in Charlottesville or Barcelona.

Also today, the president will address the nation to discuss his plans for this country's longest war -- Afghanistan. Meanwhile U.S. military exercises are scheduled to begin in South Korea, which North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong Un, said he will meet with "merciless strikes."

But when we look up -- or down for those of us without eclipse glasses -- this afternoon, for a brief moment, might we all be reminded how small we really are and that we are here together, despite our differences and our politics and our wars, until one day when we are not.

Published in Editorials on August 20, 2017 10:03 PM