The path of totality

The countdown is on. Everyone I know here in Ohio is talking about the total solar eclipse happening today! Being near the path of totality, our schools are closed, we're prepped with our eclipse glasses and viewers, and obsessively checking weather reports.

This daytime darkness event of 2024 will sweep from Mexico to Maine, and because of how close the moon is to the earth, it is projected to last 4 whole minutes if you're in the right place.

I'm 100% here for it!

I'm all in, and because the weather reports have been iffy, will be chasing this experience. The gas tank is filled up, snacks packed and we're ready to drive wherever we can get the clearest skies.

Why am I willing to spontaneously drive (maybe even as far as Cleveland)?!

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1.  When such a rare and epic event presents itself, you do what you can to grab the opportunity!

From the Washington Post: "The magic of the total eclipse will occur only within the narrow path of totality. It’s a scene so dramatic that it moves some to tears. Others find it spiritual, altering their perspective on the universe. Many can’t even describe it."

It's not often things line up (being off work, no school, being within 50 miles of totality) - the rest of the prep is just keeping an eye on weather reports and doing some research on routes and locations.

➡️ Meet opportunities that present themselves to you. Learn to recognize when they happen (not often are they as big as say, an eclipse), and do what you can within your control to prepare and make the most of that opportunity!

Read I’m a planetary physicist. An eclipse is wondrous — don’t underestimate it from the Washington Post.

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2. You will get a sense of how small you are in the big picture.

Some of the spectacles you'll see in the path of totality: sudden nightfall, the corona (the sun's atmosphere) a 360-degree sunrise, Baily's beads, and shadow bands. The articles I'm reading from astronomers and physicists who've seen a total solar eclipse say the experience is nothing short of wondrous.

Just look up on a clear night sky, or hike to the top of a peak, and you'll get a sense of your existence: you're 1 of 7 billion people on this planet, and your lifespan's a blink of an eye compared to the 4.6 billion years the earth's been estimated to be around, plus, our earth is part of a universe in a galaxy that's part of billions of galaxies. It's just... incredible to imagine.

➡️ It's all connected. You as this speck in the universe, existing as a bundle of particles in the tiniest sliver in time. You, made up of the literal dust that the moon and stars are. You connect the past, present and future - and what you do makes a difference. You're connected to ALL of this that exists.

What will your (small s) self do for your (big S) Self? Write that book, start that conversation, build the project, make the change. Do it! You shouldn't feel diminished - rather, realize you're inseparable from it all and feel large!

​Watch astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson explain why.

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3. Beauty is truth and truth is beauty; that's all there is to know. This line from John Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn is about the unbreakable connection between our purest passions as humans and the infinite truth of our imaginations.

In letters to his friends in 1817 he says, "What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth—whether it existed before or not—for I have the same Idea of all our Passions as of Love: they are all, in their sublime, creative of essential Beauty.”

I think of you making your way in your endeavors, following the truth of your imagination. Go, go forth and chase your beauty.

Chase the path of totality.

Read more in this Ode on a Grecian Urn - Poem Guide​

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🌙 ✨

To magic, and that the weather gods are in our favor this afternoon!

Ixi

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