No Eclipse for You!

 As I write this, millions around the country are gathering along the path of totality for the total eclipse of the Sun today. Jessica and I will not be among them. I had asked her last year if she wanted to see it. I had seen the one in 2017 in central Wyoming, but she had not seen one. Given the rarity of the spectacle, I did not want to deprive her of the chance to see it,

My personality, as I've learned throughout my life, is either to far in advance in planning, or last minute scrambling. In this case, about a year ago, I realized the eclipse would happen in April 2024 and did research to find a good place to see it. I figured Dallas was the best shot and researched hotel rooms there on Booking.com, finding that even a year in advance, many places were sold out. I tentatively picked out some decent hotels in downtown but did not book them. That's the "way in advance" part of my personality---figure it out and then wait, not taking action until the last minute.

Last fall, when we went up to New Mexico to see the annular eclipse, I made doubly sure that Jessica was not interested in going, as I figured we could still get hotel rooms at that point but it would be a harder with each passing day as people woke up to the event that coming in April.

Once upon a time in my life, I would have been disappointed to "miss out" on the rare spectacle, even though I'd seen a total eclipse. These days I am more relieved to stay home. The younger me would look at the older me and say, "what happened to you, man?"

So it was with mixed feelings that I read last week that the forecast called for cloudy skies in Texas during the eclipse. On the one hand, I was pleased that we had done gone through the expense and effort of traveling here just have a suboptimal experience of the event. From my experience in Wyoming in 2017, the most thrilling thing was to see the solar corona during totality. The tendrils of the corona were a type of beauty in patterns I had never seen anywhere in nature. They reminded me of an ancient Indian design, the kind girls try to emulate in henna tattoos back when I was in college. Without that, it would feel like not really seeing the eclipse at all, and that is apparently what people in Texas will experience this morning. 

I feel bad for them. I wish everyone along the route has the kind of experience I had in 2017. I would rather that, and feel like I missed out, then feel justified in not going. Many people will go away from the event today feeling like it was a giant nothingburger. There's no real consequence from that I suppose, but it would be more fun if everyone got to see it and delight in it.