We are Committed to Complete Totality

by Daniela Salazar Monárrez
NYC Religious Friends Society

“Is it starting? 

Can you see it? 

Is it time yet? 

Ya pasó?

Do you think the clouds will clear?

Hank Green said they clear up a little right before it happens, just naturally.”

The anticipation is palpable and other occupants of the sleepy BBQ restaurant in Dallas, Texas, split their time between watching us (loud visitors from out of town) and the windows with equal interest. The moment their attention flies away from us and towards the outside we know it's time.

When we come back a half hour later, wanting to pretty please use their bathroom again, the wait staff repeat the same amazed question: “You travelled? All that way! Just for this?” And you chose to watch it in our parking lot, their tone implies. “Yup!” we smile mischievously, “Can you imagine?” Their wide eyes tell us that truly they cannot, and they're having a hard time not judging our decisions.

There is absolutely no astronomical reason the moon and sun appear the same size in the sky just so that the sun's corona casts the moon's shadow into an eerie twilight for minutes; the Earth's moon is an abnormal size in proportion to Earth; compared to other planets, ours is quite large. The moon itself began as a part of Earth and its distance from us has slowly been increasing over time.

In the car from the airport our driver asks us why we're in town and we report the unfavorable clouds which we have 3 hours and 10 minutes to take into account as we pick the best direction to head in once we acquire the rental. "Oh!" he said, reaching for his phone to dial a number, “Déjame le hablo a mi primo.” He calls his cousin, two hours south from us now. “He drove down from California to see it. Arrived just the other day. He was telling me all about it.”

Our attention is once more collected together in this parking lot as we witness the corona of the sun appear, “Take off your glasses!” goes the shout all over the street. It's absolutely incredible. It looks like pure white light, behaving like halogen, around the blacked out face of the sun. Eclipses only happen with New Moons. The moon is completely invisible until it renders the sun into shapes that remind us of the stages of the moon, crescent full waning. But not; it's odd and eerie. Quick and precious but not instantaneous. It feels unsafe to take the glasses off but we rip them off and then there is a general silence and collective awe. Part of this incredible feeling comes from being allowed to savor it. It will be over so soon. We know that this is temporary and that the real light of the sun will come back in. We have utter faith in that, we just know it.

In witnessing totality, we bear witness to truth itself, that we do not give ourselves life. We are incapable of sustaining life for ourselves. We can work to prolong it and collaborate to improve it, but we can no more create something from nothing than move the sun out from behind the moon or clouds in the sky. And what keeps this feeling like a miracle is only that we know how rare and brief this encounter of celestial bodies is. If this just happened, if we were not told about and prepared for what was coming, it would inspire a great fear and existential dread. The wonder also comes from the indescribable and captivating beauty of this kind of light.

We don't have to wonder if acts of nature are divine revelation; they are a message reverberating through the environment: WITNESS ME. Why must you all gather at the path of totality? Why travel for the eclipse? We are committed to complete totality. We face the sun and are awed by the light. We gather to bear witness to the revelation that is embodied by the totality of the spirit, we must commit completely.

Our race to totality was a rehearsal for the total unity we must practice in the coming revolutions of the moon. The next total eclipse of the sun over North America will be in 2044; what should we do and how will we live that time? After all, how worth it was it to gather from across the land just to witness the birth of a brand new sun.

You can reach Daniela on Instagram at @nyc.quakers.