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What a Wonderful World
Author: BobR    Date: 02/22/2008 13:25:35

It seems that life is so hectic these days, full of work and presidential campaigns and running errands. How often do we stop and take notice of all the tiny miracles that we take for granted so often that they become just part of the wallpaper on the walls that we build around ourselves? Sometimes nature stretches and tosses us something we can't ignore and forces us to look.

The night before last was the full lunar eclipse. In our little corner of this little blue marble hurtling through the cosmos it started out a little cloudy, and we were disappointed that we'd miss it. As the night slowly ate the green cheese, nibble by nibble, the clouds gradually demurred until the moon in all its orange glory remained alone.

http://www.skynightly.com/images/solar-eclipse-lunar-red-bg.jpg


I was struck by the beauty of the tableau before me, the leafless trees with their tangle of branches silhouetted against the dim remaining wisps of clouds, the occasional star performing in the chorus to backup the main attraction, the chilly night air flowing over my skin like an invisible mountain stream... And there in the center of it all, hung la Luna, looking close enough to touch, an orange sphere floating in the nighttime sky showing off its curves typically hidden by its normal garish luminescence, as if Mars had decided to come for a visit.

It occurred to me that every night (wherever you happen to be when night occurs) the earth beams its black shadow behind it like a giant dark spotlight, obscuring the sun for all that pass through it. Every month as the moon makes its journey, I wonder how close it comes to that anti-glow, and how it happens that on those rare magical occasions it decides to swim through the darkness, emerging on the other side unscathed?

I also considered what a magic coincidence it is that the moon and the sun are the exact same apparent size when viewed from the earth. The sheer statistical impossibility of an even more rare solar eclipse where sun, moon, and earth line up through the inconceivably vast distances of space, and yet the moon obscures the sun exactly - it makes the imagination gasp.

From our solar system which mimics our understanding of atomic structure to the fractal equations in our DNA, played out in the fractal symmetry of the leaves and trees, to our symbiotic relationship with plants that breathe in CO2 and expel O2, to the circle of water, and the circle of life, I look at it all and think: What a Wonderful World...



Happy Friday...

 

196 comments (Latest Comment: 02/23/2008 15:40:57 by m-hadley)
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