Illumination

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I see the moon and

The moon sees me

God bless the moon and

God bless me!

Saturday night was the Wolf Moon, as named by an early Native American culture evoking the hungry wolf howling at a full moon on a cold winter night.  Saturday's moon appeared 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than other full moons will be this year according to Spaceweather.com.  It's because we are closer -  at the closest point of  an eliptical orbit at fullest illumination of the moon making it appear brighter and larger.

Like people?

You may creep very close to me and I appear no brighter. 

It is all about illumination. And appearance.

Having just returned from a week in downtown Nashville Tennesses, I know a bit about illumination.  Broad Street in Nashville has a couple blocks bedecked in neon, blazing brightly with names like "Jack's Bar-B-Que" or "Second Fiddle," announcing music and food.    The lights are inviting, the music, both good and not so good, is exciting.  But lights can be misleading. Hollywood came to Nashville while I was visiting. A movie starring Tim McGraw and Gwyneth Paltro was being filmed in one of the bars, causing excitement in the street as trailers and cranes blocked the sidewalk. As if there wasn't already enough neon, the film crew was attaching another sign onto a building announcing "Beer" in case anyone hadn't already realized what the bars were serving. Another one announced "Shooters" as in "shooting stars." They were good signs, though. Bright neon letters with no subtlty.  My friend and I were glad to stand on the sidewalk, watching the crane crew work as other tourists walk around orange cones and sawhorses into the street.   We stood in front of the window behind which Tim McGraw was being filmed, a country music singer pretending to be a country music singer though not quite himself.

One thing about the signs though, they were one-sided. 

The color and glow did not go all the way through.  If you approached the signs from the other direction, they were dark, backwards, just shapes on a pole reminding us that the light were not real.  Their story was like the nickle I found on the sidewalk outside the restaraunt where the filming was taking place - the one that must have been dropped by Tim McGraw The signs were untrue. Their light was false, illuminating nothing but themselves, pointing to no real beer, no real stars.

After a long drive back to West Virginia I was welcomed to my hill top by a full moon, the brightest of the year, illuminating my home. It was late but the porch light was on and I could tell there was a light on in the kitchen. They weren't bright but were bright enough to show what I knew to be true. Inside was home, history and family.

God bless the moon and God bless me! 

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