I spent a chunk of my day in communication with my sister back in my hometown. We don’t talk/communicate often and I won’t bore you with dynamics of the dysfunctional family we had growing up. However, my hometown happens to be in the “X” of “X marks the spot where both the 2017 and today’s solar eclipse crossed in their paths across the continental United States. For reasons I won’t go into I didn’t return home for either one. I did however drive down with a friend to Columbia, SC in 2017 after lots of checking of weather reports on the two sites within driving distance and chose right. I got to experience totality under clear skies. In 2017 there was enough cloudiness my sister didn’t get the full effect, but clear skies were predicted today and she put her kayak in the lake just outside the western limits of our town for the afternoon.
I watched from a parking lot. She got to witness a solar eclipse (and a longer one – this one was slower moving) from a secluded neck of a small lake, surrounded by natural beauty both before and after. Most people on this planet have never experienced a total eclipse. It’s awe inspiring. A truly wonderous thing and you don’t have to be an astronomy or science nerd to look up at a celestial even like that and experience feelings that can’t be put into words. We learned centuries ago why and how eclipses happen. But before that, people didn’t know what was going on or why.
It often, usually in fact inspired fear in ancient times. In some remote places, say in the Brazilian rainforest it probably still would. Watching TV coverage I heard a number of ancient fears about solar eclipses listed. But I also heard something I hadn’t known. In ancient times, in what it now Turkey a war going on for six years ground to a halt as yet another major battle was heating up. The fighting stopped and the opposing factions quickly worked out a peace. That held. You can read details of the Battle of the Eclipse here:
The Battle of the Eclipse[1] (or Battle of Halys[2]) was fought in the early 6th century BC in Anatolia (present-day Turkey) between the Medes and the Lydians. According to ancient Greek historian Herodotus, the battle was interrupted by “day turning into night” – presumably a solar eclipse – and the result was a draw which led to both parties negotiating a peace treaty and ending a six-year war.
From the Wikipedia entry and in other places it’s suggested this eclipse was actually the first one to have been (at least with some accuracy) predicted. That is, as you might suspect in dispute but it can’t be discounted either. What’s important is that a natural phenomena so awed people caught up in it that they were stunned into inaction. Since the battle itself kind of petered out, ending in a draw and was followed by peace negotiations and a settlement of the war I think it’s fair to say the people at the time turned their awe into inspiration.
Given everything happening in this country and the world I’d say we could all use some inspiration in the reminder that we are a tiny little blue and white ball. Celestial forces so far beyond our control we can’t even comprehend how much can put on a helluva show. And in the process remind us of how small we are in this vast universe. It’s something to think about.
MSNBC had reporters from Eagle Pass Texas where the eclipse first crossed into the U.S. up through Hogersville Maine showed scene after scene of awed eclipse watchers. I’m no fan of Chris Jansing to be sure. She travelled home to Cleveland and family to both take in the eclipse with them and host a segment. She stayed with her brother who lives less than a ten minute walk from Lake Erie and while she did show her family both before the eclipse arrived and during it she was talking to various people who’d come to watch. Her voice kept cracking and had it not been so dark I’m sure we’d have seen tears streaming down her cheeks. Katy Tur was hosting those two hours of the eclipse traversing our country. She’s pissed me off more than a little bit lately but she got it right in suggesting that given how many tens of millions of people in the U.S. got to witness what most people don’t in their entire lives, and were almost universally awed by it maybe we should all take some inspiration from it.
Sure, Trump and some others couldn’t resist trying to dump sh*t on the experience but overwhelmingly people were stunned in admiration of the show nature put on today. And learning today that an ancient war had ended because of an eclipse I decided to look it up. Sure enough, it’s true.
Just as in ancient times when the original Olympic games were held in Greece wars stopped in honor of the games and participants were given safe passage back and forth, certain events are large enough that we find a way to stop fighting.
It’s a crazy hope, but it’s my wish tonight that as the week goes on and people at work, in their communities and even families that have been feuding instead talk along the lines of “Wow! That was awesome. We were SO lucky to see it!” And in the process realize that for all our differences sometimes we can still share something wonderful together. If people can do that much, who knows where it might lead?
Thanks for the Herodotus mention. I’ve read about his travels (not his work directly). Not all of us were fortunate to see today’s eclipse, but I remember a couple from my youth. Hopefully more people will have a bigger “world view”.
Anyone who gets too inflated with humans and humanity on this earth would do well to look at that marvelous picture of Carl Sagan giving his “tiny blue dot” talk. The one where he points out a pinpoint of blue in the vastness of space, way over in the corner of that enormous image from Voyager. Our earth is a tiny planet out towards the edge of a smallish and insignificant galaxy which itself is nowhere near the center of our universe. Kind of puts things in perspective, at least for me. It IS a miracle there is life on our planet, and that we’ve developed as we have. Sadly we have a lot more evolving to do if we can manage to avoid destroying the conditions that make like on our little blue and white ball even possible. As the character Malcom says in Jurassic Park (the book, which is darker and more profound than the admittedly entertaining movie) “Let’s be clear. We don’t have the power to save or destroy this planet. But we might have the power to save ourselves!”