A lack of feelings about the eclipse
The solar eclipse fad – I’ll be frank about it. I don’t get the hype.
That could probably be the end of the column because that’s the jist of it, but I’ll go into some more detail because I love hearing myself clack the keyboard.
I 100 percent support places like the Colby Community Library giving out free sunglasses to help people try and see the phenomenon but I personally didn’t participate in such events The podcast I listen to daily had one of its cast members defending the solar eclipse viewing experience. They said, “This only happens once every 30-40 years in the United States. Why wouldn’t you want to watch it?”
Again, I understand why people would want to. I just am not one of those people. Props to anyone who was able to go outside and actually see the eclipse. In Abbotsford that day, it was too cloudy to effectively see it. Maybe a filter on your phone or those special glasses would have helped.
My disdain for eclipses doesn’t really make sense. I have enjoyed pretty much anything to do with astronomy over the course of my life. For me, it started when I was a young guppie. I would go outside at my parents’ farm out in the country and look up at the stars. To this day, it is still probably the most peaceful thing to do on this planet. In elementary school, we had Star Lab come to town. Joan Neumann would bring the giant bubble with a lit up interior to the elementary school and we’d have a blast finding constellations, planets, moons and other things in “space.”
Then, I started to get into space-related movies. From “Interstellar,” “Armageddon” and “Apollo 13,” to “Star Wars,” “Star Trek” and “Galaxy Quest,” I loved any movie that had a science fiction aspect to it. We’d even get off the bus and run to the TV to watch whatever “Star Trek: The Original Series” rerun starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy was on.
Then, things turned. I was introduced to college Astronomy. I swear there’s more math in Astronomy classes than there is math in math courses. Unfortunately, my brother got the math genes in the family and so I quickly realized that Astronomy wasn’t my thing. I also took this course at the beginning of my college career so I admittedly wasn’t applying myself in the most effective way.
If I took the class now, it might be a different story. Who knows? Maybe down the road, I’ll get back on the astronomy horse, but now I’ll have to wait until 2044 to see the next solar eclipse in South Dakota.
Speeding
Through
L
ife
