Musings on eclipses, baseball and the man in the moon

On Oct. 28 I was walking my dog, Skippy, at about 6:30 a.m., and the air was exceptionally clear. Venus was rising in the east, climbing ahead of the sun and shining brighter than anything except the moon.

Low in the western sky was the full beaming face of the man in the moon, who was back in the spotlight after being darkened by the previous evening’s total lunar eclipse during the World Series game.

Was the moon’s red face that night a sign of anger at the Cardinals’ performance, or was it a rosy glow because he’s a Red Sox fan? Was that a slight smile on his face this morning, or a tiny scowl? Were the planets, sun and moon aligned as an omen, signifying an end to the “Curse of the Bambino”?

Well, I’m a nature lover, and I believe the endless phenomena she creates, like the lunar eclipse, are just the reflection of her many faces and not a predictor of any man’s success or failure. I think it is important to know the difference between events we can work hard to try to control and those that just happen.

The Red Sox won the Series because they were good, worked hard all year, had a few lucky breaks and wanted to win more than the other team.

The moon was red that night because the red sunlight near the horizon was refracted by the atmosphere into the earth’s shadow and landed on the darkened moon.

Jim Peck

Monroe