on the path of totality

on the last total solar eclipse, in 2017, we were on our annual holiday in a little beach town time forgot, cayucos.  we were nowhere near the path of totality, which was further north in Oregon by several hundred miles, but we looked forward to seeing the partial eclipse on the beach.  we had our special eclipse glasses too.  but the weather didn't cooperate.  it was very overcast that day.  that didn't stop us.  we hopped into the family truckster, & drove into the interior of the CA Central Coast where we found a break in the clouds 70 miles inland at a farming community called Bitterwater.  we parked beside the elementary school.  soon we were joined by eight or nine other vehicles who were also looking for a hole in the clouds to see the eclipse.  we must've been quite an unusual sight because one of the teachers of the school came outside to ask why were parked beside her school.  she smiled when we told her we wanted to see the eclipse.  soon she was outside with a few of her colleagues to do the same.

my father did drive to Oregon to be in the path of totality.  he told me it was an awesome thing to experience.  really emotionally moving.  stunning one to tears.  

today, seven years later, the U.S. experienced another total solar eclipse.  the next one will be in 2045.  but the path of totality was not even close to my beloved town in my beloved state.  instead, we experienced a partial solar eclipse of about 36% of the moon covering the sun.  besides, i was at the office today.  i did manage to take a peek around 11:15 AM at the peak of the eclipse but in downtown, & without eclipse glasses, what i saw was kind of dimming of ambient sunlight, like very early sunset perhaps.  but we live in a remarkable age.  yes, we do.  i shit you not.  NASA's youtube channel hosted a livestream on the path of totality & tho watching the total eclipse online is definitely not the same as actually being in it NASA did a really great job.  for about two hours i watched several total eclipses starting in Mazatlan, Mexico & ending in Maine.  they even provided the view of the moon's shadow on the earth from the International Space Station.  mind blown!

i've been reading & hearing lots of hype about this total solar eclipse for a few weeks now.  especailly stories about the economic boon many small communities will get because of a large number of eclipse chasing tourists booking rooms & dining at local eateries.  i've also read online a darker side of the eclipse.  conspiracy theories.  stories about the rapture happening during the eclipse etc etc.  i don't remember reading about these things in 2017.  says a lot about our collective mental space at the moment, i guess.

at any rate, i would love to experience a total eclipse but at my age 21 years from now is a long time coming.  the next total solar eclipse will be on August 12, 2026 which includes Greenland, Iceland, & Northern Spain, among other areas, in the path of totality.  will i travel to any of these places?  never say never.  but Iceland & Greenland often have cloud cover even in summer.  Nothern Spain?  don't know.  probably not.  tho these are places i've always wanted to visit.  especially Iceland.  

still, i want to say that the path of totality is also a mental space, an interior of the mind & imagination, that can be visited when my own mental apparatus are working for it.  but that's not quite true.  the path of totality cannot be replicated by the willed power of the imagination & the intellect.  for solar eclipses, partial & total, are a fact of physical reality.  we can read about sitting on the sand of a beach & feeling the breeze, taste the salt air, & seeing & hearing the surf, but you really got to be there to really experience it.  

but if i might borrow a phrase from a pop song of a certain repute, i can have, sometimes, 'a total eclipse of the heart.'  we live in a remarkable age.  we have the calculations that can tell us the precise date & time for solar eclipses, partial & total, for the next thousand years.  we can also see evidence of these beautiful acts of nature in the form of video & audio.  when the camera operators removed the protective filters off the lenses during totality, & i could see the Daimond Ring effect, while in another screen i can watch the people gathered, now in darkness, & hear their awe & joy, i felt a sudden irrigation of my eyes.  for solar eclipses shows us the true scale of our solar system, its awesome size, & how small we are in relation to it.  then telescope that out more & realize our solar system is tiny compared to the Milky Way.  then telescope the Milky Way out to its small size in relation to the Local Galaxy cluster where our own home galaxy is one of 54 galaxies etc etc.  & in all that vastness we are here on our planet with the ability to think, to love, to hate, to have emotions such as awestruck & humility.  when i am reminded, & not for the first or last time, that we are made of starstuff & afterwards, when we die, our atoms, might return to the Cosmos, back to starstuff.  & forever be a part of the Cosmos until it too shall die.