A Long Way

This week, a solar eclipse occurred. I wasn’t in the path of totality, but you could tell it was happening. The world got steadily darker. It felt almost as if a foreboding plot point in a story was gearing up. The world darkens, then some big ominous thing happens. Yet, at the same time, there was a sense of calm in the air like the world was getting ready to take a power nap.

I was working the day the eclipse happened. It worked out that I got to experience it during my lunch. The day was bright and sunny, so I took lunch on the roof of one of our animal buildings. I watched the world darken. Shadows intensified and brightness dimmed away.

Then it got cold.

I felt a chill as more and more of the sun was covered by the moon. It was astounding. We were enjoying a sunny, warm day and within an hour, the world gets stifled and chilly. It made me look up a lot. Not at the sun, but at the sky itself. It’s beautiful shades of blue that block the blackness of space beyond. I’ve been trying to work on my sci-fi novel lately and it’s set in space. That plus the solar eclipse was a great reminder that there’s so much more than just what we see.

Like I said, I wasn’t in totality, but I believe I was in the upper 80-90% coverage range when it came to the eclipse. I didn’t have glasses, but my coworker was kind and let me borrow his on occasion. When we reached our max coverage, the sun looked like the sliver of a waning, orange moon through those glasses. I remember being astounded at how little of the sun was left and yet the world was still bright enough for life to be unaffected. I work at a zoo. I watched the behavior of our animals and native birds to see how they would respond to the darkening world. The birds still went about their business. The herds on the plains still grazed away. The Guinea fowl screamed–but they always do that. And, our cheetah kept watch over it all like always. None of the animals reacted to the partial eclipse.

I think that was my favorite part. The world could get blocked. The sun could be hard to see. Yet, a little light can go a long way.