It is comforting to know that there are still happenings powerful enough to put the world’s business on pause. For a few hours on Tuesday, strangers, friends and neighbors stood shoulder to shoulder looking up at a natural phenomenon. I was milling about on a shared patch of grass at the Edgartown Public Library. We couple hundred residents and visitors of Martha’s Vineyard could have stayed near our individual homes, but this occasion seemed to call for coming together. A communal conversation. There we were, lining up to look through the telescope — assisted by none other than a retired Harvard astronomy professor — sharing the special reflective glasses with those who were too late the get the free ones from the library, and engaging in detailed discussions about how best to take a photo of the celestial action. For just a little while, we all felt the same emotions — the awe of the moment and the excitement of watching and waiting as the moon slowly blocked out the sun. I would have been thrilled to see the total eclipse, but our partial one was pretty spectacular.
Frankly, I couldn’t imagine that anything could take our attention away from the toxic and painful events of the last few weeks. I’m still trying to understand the depth of the fury of the torch-bearing marchers in Charlottesville, and a President who sees “very fine people on both sides” in an event that spurred James Alex Fields, Jr. to drive his car into the demonstrators, killing Heather Heyer. Just a few days ago, her cousin Diana Ratcliff wrote, “Until last week we (her family) had no idea what it feels like to lose someone because of hate.” And she reminded the readers of CNN.com that ‘white nationalists aren’t some uneducated backwater clowns that are going to disappear. They’re loan officers, they’re service providers, they’re professionals and public servants ... they’re everyday people.” Her sentiments were published a day before the counter protest rallies around the country. Forty thousand demonstrators in Boston alone turned out to mark a line in the sand against the once-underground hate movement.
In a few short days we’ve witnessed human nature’s most base instincts, and a marvel of Mother Nature. What are we to make of the back-to-back events — street marches for healing and unity and a day of gazing skyward in awe and wonder? The spiritual leader Buddha observed, “Three things cannot be long hidden, the sun, the moon and the truth.” The sun and the moon are back in orbital alignment until the next eclipse, predicted for 2024. But what will we who are earthbound do to keep the truth of these turbulent times unhidden?
An earlier version of this post stated James Alex Fields, Jr.’s name is James Heard.
