CLEVELAND — It is not often we as a nation are brought together almost of a single mind. It happened yesterday.
We were of one community, albeit for just a few hours. We looked skyward and away from ourselves and any differences among us.
The solar eclipse of the moon and the sun in alignment with our part of the Earth proved also spiritual for me. Maybe you, too. Millions of us waited in joyous anticipation for the moon to cast its shadow across our faces.
In the shadow's path we gathered in large or small groups. But in reality, we gathered as a single community of humankind witnessing the spectacular. We found sweeping agreement with each other as a stunning display of nature unfolded before us. Really, unfolding on us.
In Northeast Ohio, the world beat a pathway to our front door for our vantage point to gaze into the heavens. Visitors and we locals watched in awe, celebrating often with tears. Count me among the teary-eyed. But there was something else as stared into the long beckoning overhead blue. I think as a single community we found our better selves. We were shoulder-to-shoulder with no divisions among us. None. No political, racial, ethnic, economic, or generational divisions. Not even neighborhoods could divide us, for we are reside in the same neighborhood -- Earth.
On this spinning sphere of home, we travel together in the darkness of space where we are one people. The eclipse reminds us just how large is our corner of the universe, but how closely tied together are its inhabitants.
There were cheers of delight, we voiced, as the moon and sun creeped toward moments of totality. We lifted our voices in a unified chorus into the beautiful welcoming darkness which covered us. My feelings soared at that moment. Yours, too, I'm certain. Or they should have soared. I wish for that wonderful feeling day in and day out. Neighborhood-wide. What a world we would have.
The thought of such possibility … brightens me. Like when the sun came back.