2017-08-24 – I’ve been mostly out of touch with the news this week. So I’d like to reflect on the people we met in Wyoming and Montana during and after the solar eclipse.

They were all types. There were resisters and there were Trumpsters. There were evangelicals and hippies and Mormons and homeschoolers and social workers and retirees and one astrophysicist. We met Canadians from Calgary coming down to the path of totality and a family from Munich, Germany (I got to try out my one German phrase on them—“Wo kommen Sie her?”—but they spoke fluent English).

We all were in awe of the astronomical event we were witnessing. There was no Democrat and no Republican in the moment.

Solar eclipses are rare.

But they are not that rare. In the lead-up to Monday’s eclipse, the media sold us on the idea that it was a once-in-a-lifetime event. But the only thing that was once-in-a-lifetime was the neat path of totality that crossed from one end of this country to another.

In reality, however, solar eclipses occur much more frequently. They just follow different paths. We’re looking forward to the total eclipse that will come near to us in Indiana in just seven year. There are others in between time at other places.

There are many paths to goodwill between people as well. There is not just one path. The warmth we felt from the people we met this week doesn’t have to be rare. We always look for hatred and animosity. Maybe we need to get out our eclipse glasses to look for all that we share. We seem to have a hard time seeing that in all the glare.

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Tomorrow, we’re planning to be on the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park.