I wasn’t all that excited about the solar eclipse. But I got a pair of those special glasses and gave it a glance.  Minutes afterward, I wanted my money back.

I realize that this was something that won’t happen again in my lifetime, but there are all sorts of things going on in the heavens that I will never see.  Many people got a better look at the eclipse because they spent a lot of money to go places where the viewing was much better. It got dark for them. Here in Moultrie, it got a little shady.

What is it that makes people get excited about once-in-a-lifetime events? Well, I must admit that I got excited about the Atlanta Falcons going to the Super Bowl twice in my lifetime. And I’m hoping that I have seen a president of the United States who goes bonkers on Twitter only once in my lifetime.

But no matter how primitive or advanced, man has always been fascinated by the heavens. I like to go out into the country on a clear night and gaze at the stars and wonder about our universe. Yet, I’m not one of those who can show you the various shapes in the stars that come from ancient mythology like Orion’s belt and Ursa Minor, etc. I can pick out the Big Dipper and the North Star. But when it comes to connecting the dots up there to find shapes of mythical creatures and beings, well I just don’t see them.  But I can connect dots and see all sorts of stuff that the Greeks never even thought about. I can connect them to see a chainsaw (no particular brand),  a jon boat (without the Evinrude) and a big square box filled with Christmas lights (they are all white and shimmering.)

Keep in mind that while those stars (suns)  look like they are on a flat surface, one may actually appear beside another when it fact it’s thousands of light years behind it or in front of it.

The eclipse made me think about some of the wild things I’ve heard about the heavens in my lifetime.  I read where one way-out group speculated that this eclipse would be the “rapture’” as spoken of in the Bible.

When I was a teen-ager, a fellow share-cropper told me that if man ever set foot on the moon, it would turn to blood. He said that was from the Bible. Obviously he was wrong. He may have gotten Moses and Buck Rogers confused.

And there was that time I gave up a Saturday’s fishing trip to help an elderly friend harvest his sweet potatoes. We really hustled that day to get them all inside the barn before dark. At the end of that task I asked him why the urgency. He told me that if a full moon shone on sweet potatoes, they would rot. I had given up bream beds for folk lore! So I wondered what would happen if a full moon shone on a bologna sandwich.

Now I have known people who would go fishing based on phases of the moon. I would go fishing based on getting a day off.  I also was told if the cows were up feeding in the pasture, the fish would be biting. If they were laying down, then forget it. But independent of such lore, the pond had better be stocked with fish or it was a moot point … or should I say a “moo” point.

Oh well, the eclipse was not a total disappointment. It caused me to do a little reminiscing and some deep thinking.  I recall once when a comet was near the earth and there was a lot of hoopla about it. We were told that it would appear as a soft blur in the southern sky. Initially I was pretty sure I saw it, only to discover it was a smudge on my glasses.

(Dwain Walden is editor/publisher of The Moultrie Observer, 985-4545. Email: dwain.walden@gaflnews.com)