Tradeoffs
Blast it, I missed yet another TCPHP meeting on Wednesday. Looks like it was a good one, too. I’m just going to have to give up deluding myself that I’ll ever make it to one.
On the other side, that night I got to see The Matrix. That makes up for it, I suppose.
And then last night I got to spend a few hours with Owen walking along the Mississippi River. He’s started to be ticklish, which is just so much fun. There is no sweeter sound to my ears than my son’s laughter. He got tired after a while and dozed off on my shoulder as we walked, but occasionally would raise his head to stare wide-eyed at the trees. He is so damn adorable it breaks my heart.
Later that evening, I surprised myself by remembering to watch the lunar eclipse. Can’t remember the last time I saw an eclipse.
It’s strange, though. Normally when I look at the moon, I get a vivid sense of being a very small part of a very large planet, which is itself a tiny speck in the universe. This is at once humbling and enthralling. It’s the only time I ever even come close to imagining how truly vast and miraculous the universe is. I would have expected the eclipse to be even more awe-inspiring, but instead my reaction was very cold and analytical. “Oh look, the earth is casting a shadow on the moon, isn’t that unusual. Er, pretty.” I didn’t feel it in any way. Bit of a let-down, that.
Now I have a sudden urge to reread The Soul of the Night.
16 May 2003 Sam