Passing Through Blue– At West End Gallery
Sweet moonlight, shining full and clear,
Why do you light my torture here?
How often have you seen me toil,
Burning last drops of midnight oil.
On books and papers as I read,
My friend, your mournful light you shed.
If only I could flee this den
And walk the mountain-tops again,
Through moonlit meadows make my way,
In mountain caves with spirits play –
Released from learning’s musty cell,
Your healing dew would make me well!
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust
Maybe there is something to that line: Your healing dew would make me well! The moon last night (and this early morning, for that matter) was full and bright in the clear night sky. A glorious supermoon.
Though the full moon is often associated with madness– lunatics and lunacy, for example– there is also a great calming effect in standing under it.
Maybe it’s the polarity of it making you feel both insignificant and significant. You feel small compared to the magnitude of a universe where the gigantic moon that looms over us is miniscule by comparison. Yet in the bright moonlight, you are illuminated and made to feel larger as you cast a long shadow on the ground.
Or maybe it is just the moon’s symbolic nature, still and steady as it serves an essential service to humanity in the way it reflects the hidden sunlight into our dark nights.
Not a bad example to emulate– quietly steady and bringing light to others…
Here’s a classic from Frank Sinatra, Fly Me to the Moon. I never actually wanted to go the moon, never ached to travel in space, but I have often wanted to be transported there in the way this song describes. And fortunately, I’ve made that journey many times.
Redtree Times 