HUMANS CONNECT AROUND RARE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON, BUT NOT OUR RARE EARTH?

By Andrew C. Revkin NYTIMESDOT

Photo

Photo
By Andrew C. Revkin
Sunday’s rare “Super Blood Moon” eclipse as seen from Marin County, Calif., on Sunday, Sept. 27.
Sunday’s rare “Super Blood Moon” eclipse as seen from Marin County, Calif., on Sunday, Sept. 27.Credit Deborah Hamon

Before saying goodbye to the global blitz of “super blood moon” eclipse photography and chatter (already supplanted by the momentous NASA confirmation of signs that water flows on present-day Mars), I wanted to post a short note I received Monday morning from Deborah Hamon, an environment-focused artist from Marin County, Calif. (You can see her Arctic “pompom project” here.)

Hamon compares the powerful lunar pull that prompted so many millions to look skyward Sunday night to a sustainability researcher’s comment about the lack of a human “cultural narrative” for planetary care in my coverage of Pope Francis. Here’s how she put it:

I just came in from viewing the super moon eclipse, which ended up being quite a gathering in my neighborhood, including a seniors’ ukelele band called “The Fountain of Ukes” [some background!] singing songs about the moon and more)….

But as I was watching this amazing show put on by the earth, moon and sun, I thought about all the people in my neighborhood, all the people across the country, and all the people in the part of the world where it was visible, who were coming together at the same time to watch this event and marvel and talk about it. Then I read your piece, and I just thought why is it so difficult to manage our planet, when all these people can come together simultaneously to celebrate the moon. Cultural narrative indeed…

That is indeed a question worth pondering.

Photo note | The top image was shot by Hamon from her neighborhood. The time-lapse image was made by Jeff DelViscio, a friend who recently left The Times to help launch StatNews for the Boston Globe.