I love the moon. I do not know when this love affair began.
I have memories of being in junior high school, looking out my bedroom window at night onto the yard below. The moon shining through the trees nearly took my breath away. There is no hue like it. It is pure and perfect.
Since I have a slight aversion to summer, part of my moon love may be that evening brings coolness and soothingness and peace. The winter moon draws me, too.
Every season it draws me. It woos me and calls me. Sometimes I answer with lightness and a smile. Other times I answer in silence and grief.
I’ve seen the moon in the mountains. I’ve seen the moon on the sea. I’ve seen the moon on a flawless, snowy corn field, the ice blue beams turning that snow into diamonds.
But perhaps my favorite place to see the moon is in my own back yard, peeping through those dark, tall branches. I position my head on the pillow so my face can bask in the glow of the moon. Long after I am dreaming, it leaves me to bring peace and light to another.
Now, I must share some fascinating moon facts with you:
If you could fly to the moon on a Delta jet (new hub idea, Delta), it would take you two weeks, three days and 18 hours. Can you imagine being on a fight that long? I hope they have good movies and plenty of peanuts.
Spacecraft travel is a little more efficient and takes about three days.
The earth is nearly 50 times bigger than the moon.
The surface of the moon is covered with craters from being bombed by meteorites and asteroids for millions of years. Some of those craters are tiny, but the largest is 600 miles across. SIX HUNDRED MILES! That is like driving from Cincinnati to Kansas City. The moon also has huge mountain ranges, nearly the size of Mount Everest.
In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin spent a couple of hours walking around on the moon. They left scientific instruments and all of their rubbish, which will remain there forever. Or at least until Rumpke gets up there and empties the can full of Cheetos bags and Pepsi bottles.
Because there is no air on the moon there is no wind and no weather. The footprints made by astronauts will last forever unless someone disturbs them.
Ahh…there it is. Another reason I love the moon so much. Being a writer and a romantic (a burden, at times), I love the poetic notion of footprints made that will remain forever.
When we love with all of our beings, those loved ones plant footprints on our hearts that remain forever. Wind, fire, rain nor storm can remove them.
So the next time you see the moon, think about the love in your heart. It is put there to stay.
And if you get an opportunity to look through the largest telescope in the world, which is in the Canary Islands of Spain, let me know if the astronauts were drinking regular Pepsi or diet Pepsi. Just curious.