Solar Eclipse of the Heart
I’m not going to write a Solar Eclipse post about how everyone (who was able to see it) gathered on rooftops, and parking lots, and backyards, to view the eclipse. This isn’t going to be a post about how everyone was unified for a single moment in time, looking at a majestic event and realizing how small they are in comparison to the universe.
I could write that post. I’m almost sure that a younger and more naïve version of myself wrote something similar seven years ago when I got to experience a total eclipse in 2017.
I’m sure that you’ll find other Substack writers on here saying something similar. Instead, the totally awesome Solar Eclipse of 2024 was a normal day, where normal life was taking place, while something extraordinary was happening.
I’ll tell you about how I bought eclipse glasses online to make sure that me and my kids and Jackie had some for the day of the cosmic event. I knew that their school would be supplying them with some, but I wanted them to have some just in case. It was a 12-pack, so I was able to give some away at work to some of my co-workers.
But before all of that, I totally forgot my glasses at home. In making sure that my loved ones had theirs, I completely neglected grabbing mine. Fortunately, I was able to go home quickly during my lunch hour and pick them up.
Back at work, I took periodic looks outside one of our balconies, observing the moon perform its cosmic dance, all the while I had to answer emails, plan meetings, and take phone calls.
However, when it was near totality (and that as much as we would get here), I went outside to the rooftop parking garage, with Manny, one of my co-workers.
We were later joined by other people from somewhere else in the building, who curiously did not have any eclipse glasses. Yet, they still wanted to participate in this magical moment.
Mind you, my phone’s forward-facing camera is broken, so any picture that I attempted to take of the eclipse, was certainly actually eclipsed by anyone else’s better camera. Still, I took a few photos.
I promise that the viewing experience was better in person. Reminding myself of that, I forgot my phone and stood there for a few minutes taking in one of the most spectacular displays of nature. I took it in, along with Manny, the strangers, and dozens of others I could see standing on other rooftops across the city.
Then I went back to emails and phone calls; the majestic and the mundane co-existing. Isn’t that the way of the world, anyways? Most of our days are filled with the same routine. There’s nothing wrong with that. But, every once in a while something magnificent happens. It’s not always an amazing event like a solar eclipse. Often, it’s a smile, or the satisfaction of helping someone, or the joy of finding a solution to a problem, or even laughing hysterically. Those moments are there, tiny and powerful, but always there, reminding us that the mundane and the holy can co-exist.
Thanks for reading.
What was your eclipse viewing like?