Trump Eclipsed by the Sun and the Moon

People all over the United States enjoyed a rare afternoon free of the bombast and self-destructiveness of their President Donald Trump yesterday when a total eclipse of the sun spun over the country in a southeasterly direction from the Oregon coast to South Carolina, and thence out to sea.

Millions of people drove to the nearest area of totality with their special glasses or homemade sun-viewers (many fashioned from cereal boxes) even as astronomers made a photographic record of the event from the ground, from airplanes chasing the eclipse, from the International Space Station, and from unmanned satellites orbiting the earth. It was a special day for the crowds in prime viewing areas to watch the moon’s shadow slowly cover the sun until only the sun’s “ring of fire” or annulus peeked out around the curvature of the moon.

The only appearance by our Great Leader was on a White House portico with wife Melania and son Barron, wherein Donald lifted his head to the heavens briefly (without using the protective glasses to keep his eyes from being permanently damaged).

Do self-made gods have divine protection even from the sun?

My thoughts went back to June 30, 1954, when I was a child in the midwest and saw my first solar eclipse. My school science teacher had organized a viewing event at our school’s playground beginning at dawn, to occur as a total eclipse ran its course beginning as the sun rose in Nebraska and thence moved northeast over Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montreal, and Newfoundland on its way across the North Atlantic via Greenland, looping over the Faroe Islands, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, the Ukraine, the Soviet Union, Iran, Afghanistan, and once more into dusk and darkness.

We were located in a 75% totality viewing area as the sun rose, already partially obstructed by the moon, using our cereal box viewers as our teacher set up his telescope on the playground to view a clear sky devoid of clouds. We would take turns viewing the heavens through the telescope, awed by the celestial drama occurring overhead.

Yesterday’s sun was easily visible from my Queens, New York neighborhood, and I joined a variety of neighbors using their special glasses or jerry-rigged cereal boxes, lounging in front of their apartment buildings watching the sky.

It grew very quiet as the moon’s coverage area was maximized, small animals, birds, and even insects hushing, the light dimming, and crescents of shade reflecting the sun’s configuration dappling the sidewalks. It felt almost religious, a spiritual experience communing with the elements.

A nice breather in a universe of wonders that we tend to take for granted. A good day.