I see the moon and the moon sees me
And the moon sees someone that I long to see.
So God bless the moon and God bless me
And God bless the someone that I long to see.
I have always loved this childhood song...the idea that as I gaze into the night sky that there is someone I care about looking at exactly the same thing.
On Monday night there will be a Supermoon...technically the closest that the Moon comes to the Earth in its elliptical orbit around us. You can go into the mathematics around it, but that sort of seems to take away from the mystery of it all.
In the aftermath of this last week where the stars and planets seemed to be out of their orbits, and people around the world spun out of their collective paths, that there is something really special about this moon...this moon that will not be this close again until 2034... that around the world, our collective eyes will be looking skyward at this phenomenon, all hoping that the one that they will long to see will be doing the same.
In Alabama...or New York...or Missouri, or California...or Hawaii...or across the Pacific to China...or India...or Syria...or the Canary Islands...or back across the Atlantic to South Carolina, eyes of every color of the rainbow will be looking skyward...will stop for a moment to experience the same thing.
And so it has occurred to me that all of the differences that we have from other people will be erased, even if only for a moment, and our human commonality will be as one...as we all gaze skyward...wherever on this lovely planet we share, 7,464,020,618 people, as of the exact moment of this writing, will experience the same thing.
When I look up at the Supermoon on Monday night, it will be with the realization that my neighbors will be looking too...whether they live on my street...my state...my continent...my hemisphere...my planet...all of my neighbors will be doing the same thing.
Let's take a deep collective breath, forget worries, forget elections, forget wars, forget strife, forget those things that separate us and for just one luminous moment unite to drink in the beauty of the Supermoon. We won't do it again for eighteen years...so look up into the skies with me on Monday night...and marvel...and dream...and imagine.
So God bless the moon and God bless me
And God bless the someone that I long to see.