I stood outside in the cold snow below migrant clouds scissoring
random stars from the broad dome of night so I could watch the shadow of our
blue planet eclipse the Moon. Our shadow
swallowed the luminary whole, albeit scrupulously. No malice.
No turning aside. The Moon
vanished as if a shiny coin dropped inside a black purse. Nearby, unconcerned, Orion lounged half-aslant,
as if reclining with one elbow against a sofa.
This, I thought, is the way in which all new centuries, all new
millennia should begin.
Once the last sliver of Moon withdrew, questions fell upon
me. What is the meaning of me? Why am I here, in particular, to witness
this? Why are we cruel as children and
mature men, but soft in-between? Why
must the order that sends all things marching be that of decline? Where goes the light that escapes beyond our
reach? Why do the coyotes cry from the
soft hills? And on.
Something ancient and grand accessed me as I stood out in the
imposed darkness. Not any profound
understanding of place and time. Not an
epiphany come religious. Just a sense of
certainty that I am at least a speck of something big: a blade of grass,
upright, splitting the wind, a stone to shape the flow a spring’s water. In the absence of moonlight, the smaller
luminaries grew brighter. To the west,
the lights in the city of Helena came full, enkindling a warm and golden
secondary glow in the low clouds easing down from the mountains. The coyotes fell silent. All things marshaled together in just one
moment of awe. All things caught up in
these celestial clockworks. The sun
going this way. The Moon going
there. Our small planet stuck in the
center. Our own atoms swashbuckling just
below the skin. Yet...all singular in
experience for a moment.
Clouds crossed over. The
Moon slowly sliced a bright slit in the darkness above, emerging from the far
side of shadow. The moment gone. The darkness of night never quite solid. The attentive stars pinpricked at me as I
trudged back inside my house to resume normal life.
—Mitchell Hegman
No comments:
Post a Comment