unfinished no.4 & SUPERMOON

i once read that there's no gravity at the center of the earth

so i'm going to grab my shovel and dig until i hit the core and 

pretend i'm in outer space, flying without falling and floating
  without fading away

until the lava gets too hot and a million tiny volcanoes push me
  back up

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today is SUPERMOON day. at 12:11 pm mountain time, the moon will be the fullest it's been in eighteen years. which may not seem that exciting. but it is. the orbit of the moon is elliptical (thanks galileo!), so that means that sometimes it's closer to earth and sometimes it's farther away at fullmoontimes. but even if it's closer in its orbit, it hasn't been this close since 1993. and i was only two back then, so needless to say the universe is trying to send me a message. or maybe not, but i'm sure it will still look awesome. then again, isn't everything that ever happens the universe trying to tell us something? i guess that's how people see things if they're into that whole, i'm-at-the-center-of-the-universe philosophy. which i'm sure is most human beings at one stage or another of their lives.but that's not what this SUPERMOON is about. at least, not the usual kind of message.

anyway, the SUPERMOON will only be 221,566 miles away from the earth today/tonight. that number might not mean anything to you, because it's really just six numbers strung together that somehow human rationality (or human folly) has given meaning to. more numbers: according to natgeo, the SUPERMOON will be twenty percent brighter and fifteen percent bigger than a regular full moon. so, if you think of a purse...that's fifteen percent more expensive than another purse, and twenty times brighter, then...well, you get the idea. purses are infinitely less cool than the moon, though. astronomers throw out these numbers, but they say that most "casual observers" won't even be able to notice the difference. 

my goal for the day and the night: DON'T BE A CASUAL OBSERVER. nature is infinitely more powerful and awesome than anything human ingenuity and innovation can create (although oreo milkshakes are close to being an exception). and it's our awesome opportunity, and responsibility, to notice nature all around us and force ourselves to leave our overly-human and overly-artificial world to be transported to some higher level, even for just a few minutes of looking at a full moon. the earth is the center of our universes, that's for sure. but think of how small this one planet is in this galaxy, and in the collection of however many galaxies actually exist. 

the SUPERMOON is an opportunity for us to be closer to another part of this galaxy and maybe feel a little more grounded in our own place in the universe. but, it's not at all a negative reminder. the sight of a giant, bright disk in OUTER SPACE rising over the horizon in the east as a brilliant sun sets in the west in a redyelloworangebluepurpleindigo and finally darkblueblack sky should be an unstoppably inspiring sight. galileo didn't invent the telescope, but he was the one who decided to point it up to look at the stars. and the things he discovered have defined our lives and reinvented scientific discovery ever since. cold war politics aside, the space race also redefined how the world works and shattered the mental distance between "us" and outer space. nasa inspired thousands of little kids to wear fish tanks on their heads and sit in the washing machine, pretending they're headed to the great unknown frontier of SPACE. and just think, if we had never tilted our heads up and looked out at the millions of stars up there, we would never have even met luke skywalker. life without starwars, now that's a bleak vision.


people use their own busy lives and everything going on in the world as an excuse, often unconsciously, to not notice the bigger world (the universe) around them. but now, this SUPERMOON presents us the perfect opportunity to actually realize that we are a part of something way huger than anything going on in our lives. nature and the natural order of the universe, no matter what your perspective is on its creation, is the most powerful force that exists and ever has existed, and it in turn inspires all the human forces of hope, love, inspiration, creativity, faith. go climb a mountain and look out over the whole world and try to tell yourself that you're still worried about a business meeting or an exam. it's not possible because you realize how all that is just insignificant in the grand scheme of themes. 

i'm not trying to sound like a hippie or environmentalist or any of the other labels we throw at people these days, but to be closer to nature and to grow in love and admiration for the natural forces at work all around us is to grow as human beings and be the best possible versions of ourselves we can be. paying attention to nature keeps us grounded (or in the case of space, UNgrounded in the best possible way) and lets us truly imagine a better world, use creativity and imagination to transport ourselves to a better place and to, in turn, use that more radiant and pure energy to turn our focus back to our human world and make it better. this transformative power is what is at the core of this SUPERMOON. 

when dante and virgil emerge from the inferno into the "bright world," dante writes:

"We climbed, he first and I behind, until,
    through a small round opening ahead of us
    I saw the lovely things the heavens hold,
and we came out to see once more the stars."

Gustave Dore's illustration of this canto in Inferno

emerging from a harrowing and literally hellish journey, the first thing dante appreciates is the stars. nature and OUTERSPACE have the immensely inspirational power to transport us from whatever place we're in in our lives and drive us to hope and smile and to imagine better. whether it's the hope of being reunited with beatrice and seeing paradise like dante, or even just the hope of  a better day tomorrow, i am endlessly grateful to those that have tilted their heads up before me, and to those who continue to do so today.

so go look outside at 12:11 pm today, or anytime tonight and especially around sunset time, to see the coolest thing you've seen in a while. and don't be a CASUAL OBSERVER. and come on, admit to yourself and to the world that a little part of you has always been, and always wants to be, an astronaut. don't let anything stop you from putting a fish tank on your head and sitting in a cardboard box pretending it's a spaceship. because pretending is awesome.


(human points for not being a CASUAL OBSERVER during the SUPERMOON: five. because even if you're just standing or sitting staring into space, you're being inspired and you will then use that creative, inspired energy to make someone's day better and to live your life at least a little more energetically and enthusiastically, with greater compassion an kindness. the real challenge is how to hold onto that idea of a higher level of living when all the world around you wants to do is break you down and take away all your energy.)