First, she admits that though it may sound silly, and despite having no other interest in astrological assignations, she’s perhaps reluctantly accepted the solar power of her Leo sign.īut the real draw - if she had to put it into words, which definitely isn’t easy for something so obscure - is in the mystery. When I finally ask, after all these years of knowing how deeply she loves these events but not knowing why, there’s some hesitation. It made me realize I’d never actually asked her where her obsession comes from. Apparently not everyone’s mom ships them packs of special glasses weeks in advance.īut for the first time, the entire country is just as wildly excited and willing to travel for a solar eclipse as my mother has always been. But at the time, I genuinely didn’t know that most people don’t have these events marked on their calendar. So I can’t blame the dozens of people we encountered for not noticing. Granted, unless you’re looking straight at the sky, a partial eclipse at 6:30pm doesn’t look much different than a big cloud passing by. By and large, they had no idea what was happening. I made an event of it, hiking up into the famous Griffith Park with a couple friends, a case of beer, and a pack of special eclipse glasses.Īs we set up our own personal Eclipse Party on the edge of a busy hiking path, I was amazed by the response we got from passersby. Back in 2012, an eclipse passed through LA, producing a “ring of fire” effect. Growing up with a unique familiarity with such a majestic event can warp your sense of appreciation. When planning trips around eclipses was established as a normal, semi-regular occurrence, I didn’t realize we were any different from a family who took pilgrimages to Disney or to some beach timeshare. I didn’t understand how unusual my childhood vacations were until the last month or so, when the whole country came down with eclipse fever. (The benefit of being a child whose vacations are planned and paid for is very clear to me now.) As for me, I’m settling for watching the partial eclipse from California. Even those who don’t fully get the excitement - for instance my mother’s boyfriend, who happily traveled with her to central Oregon but balks that they’re spending “$2,000 for two minutes” - know that this is a big deal. And today’s epic coast-to-coast trajectory makes it even more so. This eclipse, she says, already feels different. Upwards of a million people have traveled to Oregon to watch this unmissable eclipse in the path of totality, and she’s among them. Naturally, she’s absolutely stoked for the one today, August 21. Like me, she hasn’t seen a total solar eclipse since our trip to France. Her fascination propelled my family on trips to Mexico in 1991 and France in 1999 to witness these celestial events, and she’s already gearing up for a 2019 eclipse in Argentina. Ever since I can remember, my mother has been straight-up obsessed with chasing solar eclipses.
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