Dear Supporters of the Eclipse Escapade,

Thank you so much for your support.  Each one of you who signed are true friends.  As you may have noticed, there are not too many who have signed.  Of course, I have thought of re-sharing, but I would really like to have a connection to an organization before I re-share.  But, I can't seem to make such a connection.  

Instead, I have an essay for you which I hope proves impactful.

I hope you can see the map I uploaded.  It is from NationalEclipse.com.  It shows two lines crossing across the United States.  One shows the path of totality in 2017, the other shows the path of totality in 2024.  

Consider how absolutely rare it should be that such a map should exist and be accurate.  Every given patch of real estate on Planet Earth only gets a total solar eclipse every three to four centuries.  Yet here we are, as a nation, betwixt and between two total solar eclipses.  The fact that we have a total solar eclipse within recent memory, and are expecting another one very soon, makes this a very distinct time to be alive and to be an American, astronomically speaking.  Many people remember witnessing totality in 2017.  Believe me; I am one of them.  Totality is seared in my memory.  How many people, in total, watched the eclipse?  About 216 million.  Presumably, not all 216 million who watched the eclipse witnessed totality in person.  However, many of those who did not see totality in person will have heard the story from those who did.  They will have heard, "It was the most amazing thing I have seen in my life."  And many, actually most, of those who witnessed the amazing sight in person will want to witness totality again.  And all this seeing, and all this hearing, and all this wanting means that the weekend of April 8, 2024 will see more travel than any Thanksgiving weekend ever did.  

Carbondale, Illinois has got to be the luckiest city on the face of the Earth.  They enjoyed totality in 2017, and then again in 2024.  As eclipsecstatic Mark Percy put it, "No city is ever prepared for an eclipse."  But Carbondale will be better prepared than many.  They have done this before.  Buffalo has not.  But we WILL have totality on April 8, 2024, whether we are prepared or not.  

I strained my mind for a long time to come up with an analogue for how utterly distinct the moment we are living in actually is.  Finally, I came up with an analogy that stunned me even as I saw the rightness of it.  Living betwixt and between two eclipses is analogous to life.  Our lifelines that is. Our biographies.  Each and every one of us lives a life that is distinct from each and every other life.  Of course, many of us feel our lives are fairly normal, maybe even comparable to many other lives, maybe even a little hum-drum. Maybe many of us are right; maybe there will be no statues, epic poems, or sidewalk stars honoring most of us after we each go the way of all the world.  However, none of us will ever find anyone on this planet whose life is exactly like our own.  Of course, Thank God, we can relate with others up to a point.  If it were not for relatability, we would all feel quite alone.  However, no matter how much you can relate to another, sooner rather than later, you will find something different about him or her.  We are not all heroes; we are not all villains; we are not all wise; we are not all fools; we are not all adept; we are not all clumsy.  Yet, we are all distinct.  

Yes, we are each distinct, and moreover, we Americans are living in a distinct moment, betwixt and between two great, county-crossing eclipses.  I know politicians go on and on about "distinct moments" and what-not.  I am not talking politics.  ASTRONOMICALLY, we are living in a distinct moment.  Yes, there will be another country-crossing eclipse in the U.S. after 2024, in 2045.  But that is a generation away.  And it won't touch Buffalo.  In contrast, the last Great American Eclipse was only five years ago, and the next is, at the writing of this sentence, 605 days, 5 hours, 43 minutes, and 18 seconds in the future.  Two eclipses, less than seven years apart.  It takes some of us longer than that to get a professional degree.

To employ a word from anthropology, we are living in a liminal time, betwixt and between two total solar eclipses.  So you see, this moment is comparable, not to just to one other moment in time, but to each and every life.  Both this moment and a given biography: your bio, my bio, anyone's bio, are radically distinct.  Are you looking for an analogy for how distinct it is to live between eclipses?  Look to your own life.  You are distinct.  In fact, you are doubly distinct, for your own biography is distinct in itself, and the astronomical time you live in is distinct. Living betwixt and between two total solar eclipses is like individual life itself.  And like an individual life, this inter-eclipse time is not to be repeated, ever.  We have only one chance at this.  Why not do something distinct, and make this time TRIPLY distinct? 

Every big-brained biped on Planet Earth must confront the decision about what to do with his or her distinct life.  And now, Buffalo must decide what we are to do in this distinct time.  Will we come off as being a city that is xenophobic and that can't manage a little traffic congestion?  Or will we come out of it, to be seen by the world as a truly hospitable and resplendent city?  You decide.