I think that Halloween stirs a lot more interest than an eclipse of the moon.

At least I saw a pumpkin colored moon through he clouds. I remember seeing eclipses of the sun and the fear of hurting my eyes and having to look through smoked film to witness this phenomenon that historically in ancient times disturbed the public sense of solidity and reality of our world. Anything that happens after my early bed time is a thing that I miss and others tell me what a great thing it was.  This goes for television and car pile-ups outside my window.  Being hard of hearing cuts me off from a lot more than the eclipse of the moon.  Since I get sluggish early after dinner and head for bed to read my self into getting ready for sleep, I slept through the eclipse of the moon two nights ago.

The eclipse is a natural thing that astronomers have tried to explain to us for centuries – soon after they left behind the notion that the sun circled around our earth. We use the word ‘eclipse’ to mean “A decline into obscurity, disuse, or disgrace” and in our present state of upset concerning the possible outcomes of the election in a few days, our other problems seem to shrink in importance.  Well, not so for me, for I have already voted and the have arranged to have my car inspected for the squeaky brakes and mysterious loss of air in one of my tires.  This, in addition to the 25,000 mile checkup being made 500 miles short of that marker.

We also have found that we “disuse” parts of our brains when we get all excited about THE election.  Leonard Pitts, our local wise man who is now a national figure because of his level headed analyses in weekly columns, has pointed out that we have yet to figure out – after all the nasty words crafted together to convince us to love one and hate the other – that there will very soon after the votes are counted and the winner’s hand raised in victory, that we will all have to settle down, forget and start to live as one nation, not a divided and blood-thirsty country.

That election has eclipsed all else.  One of the things that I think disgrace us is that we went to war against a nasty dictator who needed removal, but have forgotten all about the man who masterminded bringing down the Trade Towers and put a big hole in the Pentagon. This election should be about how united we are about bringing Osama bin Laden and his world-wide organization to justice.  Each day, instead, we are told how our leader cannot and will not admit he made mistakes and this is frightening.

One or the other of the two candidates will eclipse the other.  It is, by poll, a very close race and no one knows how it will turn out; we should turn out Mr. Bush.