Don’t let the sun and the moon get in your eyes.

photo by Mike Higley

Years ago, I don’t remember for sure which time it was, but my family was visiting relatives in the panhandle of Texas. Walter Cronkite was on the TV telling us that men were walking on the moon. Of course, we went outside to see it. The moon shone high overhead. The sky was clear.

Earlier today, some friends of mine drove up near Dawson, Nebraska. That would have been August 21, 2017. Highway 75 was full of cars heading north. Rain was occasionally  spitting on our windshield. We joined a bunch of people we had never met around Verdun Lake near the Big Nemaha River. The sky was mostly overcast. But there was a brief clearing a little after 11:30 and we all looked up through our eclipse glasses to indeed see the moon take a nibble out of the sun.

At totality, no one waiting around Verdun Lake saw through the clouds to where the sun was completely hiding its face from us from behind the moon. All around us we saw a strange darkness come over us for just a couple of minutes. The chatter of humans nearly ceased. A flock of geese took off from the lake heading towards the east. And shortly afterwards, we packed our folding chairs and the remains of lunch and we soon joined long lines of cars heading south. Just imagine - the traffic was stop and go.

And then the sky cleared. We pulled over and looked up through our very, very dark glasses. A crescent of the sun was returning.

Here’s what I think. Keep your eclipse glasses. Or just step outside and look with your eyes open or closed sometime. In Lawrence you can see the sun rise at precisely 6:40 tomorrow morning. Rain or shine, the sun will be there. And look for a new moon. If you know where to look, you will see footprints.

Sometimes, not seeing is believing.