The satellite presence of a full harvest moon overhead will at times catch our attention when we least expect it. Other phases of the moon are seemingly less impressive, but that reflective orb is always with us, even though we urban dwellers most often go about our lives without notice. And the artificial light pollution within our cities terribly reduces the full splendor of every night sky on the planet.
At any point in time, half of the
world can view the moon and the other half can see the sun. That generally implies that most everyone within
our circle of influence will be sharing our experience with the constellations
at the same time. The recent celestial
event of a full blood moon was viewed by many of us and it occurs when the moon’s
orbit places it fully in the earth’s shadow, allowing mostly longer wavelengths
of red and orange to reflect back to the optics available to us earth-bound
human beings.
Whenever I’m in a position to view a
full moon, especially in the fall, my memory instantly returns to a long-ago
time in the Georgia mountains north of Atlanta.
My young wife Karen and I hadn’t been separated since our wedding, but
my new career involved traveling out to production plants for various
projects. I’m told the area is now a sophisticated location of beautiful retirement and second homes, but not back then. We visitors stayed in the only motel in the
area which was affectionately called “The Hilton”. When I checked in late one afternoon, I asked
for a “wake up call”. The clerk smiled,
reached under the counter for an alarm clock and noted that he closed up at dinner
time and besides, there were no phones in the rooms anyway! However, he did point to a lone weathered
phone booth out front in the gravel drive next to the two-lane highway.
The sun had receded over the mountains
by the time I returned from a short dinner, but there was a beautiful full moon
illuminating the landscape outside.
Needless to say, there was no problem here with artificial light
pollution. I wandered over to the darkened phone booth
out in the cool mountain air and was able to reach my young bride. We briefly talked awhile under the lover’s
moon and I asked her if she could also see its beauty that night. She replied that she had indeed noticed it
and could still view it outside our apartment window in the Kansas City
suburbs.
That was the tender moment when we
both realized that although we were apart, we could both be together in the
same place for a little while. And
although we were separated at the time, we had the expectation of being
together again later. I still believe that our
spirits can share that moment every time I pause to reflect on the light of a full
moon.
P.S.
The Eagles lead singer Glenn Frey
cowrote a song with Jack Tempchin titled Lover’s Moon that ends with these two
stanzas:
There's a lover's moon tonight
Shining down on half of this world
So many souls are in its light
But for me there is just one girl
And she's waiting, I know she's waiting
I know she waits for me
Under the lover's moon
