Redtree Times

Be not blind, but open-eyed, to the great wonders of Nature, familiar, everyday objects though they be to thee. But men are more wont to be astonished at the sun’s eclipse than at his unfailing rise.

—Orchot Tzaddikim

It’s Eclipse Day.

Here in western NY they are anticipating throngs of eclipse watchers from the nearby larger urban areas that are out of the zone of totality. Buffalo is expecting about an influx of about a million such folks with Rochester expecting somewhere in the 300,000 range. Niagara Falls is jammed from what I understand.

Our area is just out totality, somewhere in the 98% range but we are expecting big through traffic on the roads leading to the zone of totality which is about 40 minutes away. All those people have to get there and back somehow.

Of course, the weather is the question mark today. Though we had a spectacular sunny day yesterday, we are expecting cloud cover for the eclipse. Maybe there will be some sort of break in the clouds at some point. Who knows for sure?

We are heading to a nearby spot with about 2 minutes and 20 seconds in totality. I am interested in the phenomenon of this event but tend to agree with the thought above from the Orchot Tzaddikim, a German book on Jewish ethics that was anonymously written in the 15th century. This is a remarkable natural event but has little importance in historic terms nor does it rank above the natural beauty that surrounds us every day.

As for the conspiracies and superstitions attached to eclipses, I am not expecting anything other than the darkness of the eclipse and a lot of traffic. I don’t expect the dead to rise from their graves or anything like that. However, I would kind of like it if The Rapture took place. There would be a lot less traffic on the roads, shorter lines at the supermarket, fewer televangelists, and so on. And if all those people who believe they would be raptured away truly were suddenly gone, the world might well be a less contentious place without their moralizing, along with their judging and attempting to control the lives of others.

I don’t know about you, but I would gladly volunteer to be Left Behind if that means I am free of that.

Then we could enjoy the natural wonder of this place in relative peace and quiet.

Here’s some music for the eclipse, a tune from the Danish String Quartet, a group that deftly mixes folk and classical traditions. This song, Shine You No More, is derived from the work of a 16th century English composer.