Four Eclipses and an Implant
“Sic Transit Gloria Mundi”
OK I’ll admit it. I’m an eclipse snob. The first one I experienced was on a canoe trip in Northern Quebec.
We hadn’t seen another human being for two months, and we were crossing Lake Mistassini, which is a hundred miles long and thirty miles wide.
The lake was like a mirror reflecting the gray sky above and the gray water below. We couldn’t see the horizon and we couldn’t see land. It was as if we were suspended in great, gray void.
Each canoe had a husky puppy in its bow, and suddenly all of them started howling. The temperature dropped and it became noticeably dark.
Nobody knew what was happening. Nobody said anything. We just paddled a little harder in order to reach the far shore before the weather changed.
I was bent over pulling on my paddle when I noticed that something was missing from the reflection of the sun travelling in the water beside us. It finally hit. We were in an eclipse and it felt like the end of the world.
My second eclipse occurred in February 1979. I had loaded four friends from college in my family’s flimsy aluminum skiff and we motored 12 miles down Cape Cod’s Pleasant Bay and across to Monomoy Island. Monomoy was the only place in the entire United States that was going to experience totality.
The shoreline looked like a pilgrimage was happening. Thousands of people dressed in long robes and colorful hippie garb walked slowly down the beach as if to Finisterre.
Chatham’s finest were busy arresting people who had commandeered old tin tubs to cross the cold currents of the dangerous passage. For good measure they had also tossed the entire Harvard band into the hoosegow for repeatedly playing the theme from “2001” at the end of the desolate beach.
It started to get very dark. The entire horizon looked like sunset then totality occurred and the stars and planets came out as quickly as if someone had turned down a rheostat. Gulls flew into roost looking in the direction of the sun and bands of light, the so-called snakes in the grass rippled up and down the length of the beach. On the way home it looked like the heads of seals were poking through clouds, but the clouds were being reflected on the surface of the water.
So I didn’t expect much from the August 2017 eclipse. It seemed too overhyped and commercialized so I decided to just do some errands with the radio on so I could listen to the radio. NPR that was reporting from small towns and cities in the 6o mile wide path of totality as the eclipse swept from Oregon to South Carolina.
It was the first time an eclipse had crossed over our entire county since 1918. The time before that, John Adams had damaged his eyes from staring at the sun from the top of Beacon Hill.
Hundreds of thousands of people had flocked to high school football fields, small museums and community college campuses. They had come from all over the world and spent the night in tents, campers and trailers.
A hush fell over some groups, others broke into cheers. There was usually a scientist in each group excitedly reporting on the appearance of Bailey’s Beads, the diamond affect and coronal storms. A beagle just wagged his tail in Oregon but thousands of cicada emerged to chirr in the inky darkness over Nashville.
One final photo showed half a dozen White House aides clad in eclipse glasses staring at the sun from the Truman balcony. It looked like a scene from Independence Day.
Yet it was perhaps the first time in history that our country was united in wonder at our place in the natural world. And we didn’t even have to fire off a rocket to make the event happen.
So you can imagine my excitement as our 2024 eclipse approached. My partner had jumped on a plane to join 140 astronomers in Texas. So I checked the weather and maps to figure out the best local locations to see this years eclipse.
Then I checked my calendar. I had a 2pm dentist appointment exactly when the eclipse was going to start in New England. No wonder I had been able to get an appointment on such short order.
So this year I expect to emerge from the 2024 eclipse with a brand new implant.
“Sic Transit Gloria Mundi”
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William Sargent’s most recent books, Backstory and World on Edge are available in local bookstores and at www.ingramcontent.com.
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Bill Sargent will be leading beach walks starting from the Plum Island Point lighthouse at 10am this Sunday. Cost $10.
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