Simply a post about the moon.

Tonight the moon was very large. It glowed rich orange over the treetops, a few clouds like bandages clinging to the top, as though the Man in the Moon had suffered a head wound. It must've been a very old head wound, though, because the Man's had that same pained expression as long as I can remember.

It was daylight when the moon first came in view; my fiancee and I were headed south on Oregon Hwy. 99W. When we returned it was dark, and the looming orange moon was eerie, too close and too round and far too orange. It outshone the stars.

The hour or so we'd spent in premarital counseling with our pastor was long enough for the sky to turn black, but not enough time to smudge out the moon.

Now it's a few hours later, and the moon is still orange and round, but it's diminished somewhat in size. I don't know if it has actually, or if it's just an optical trick, something M.C. Escher could have pulled off handily with the right pencils. I half expect to wake up in the morning to an enormous moon, perhaps right up against my window, mouth open wide and eyes turned down at the corners in pain or fear or sorrow.

The moon's light is just a reflection of the sun's. Not, as the Greeks supposed, Artemis pulling pale fire behind her chariot. I have a hard time believing they actually thought that, but I guess it's possible. We all believe crazy things; believing the moon's light is just a reflection of the sun's is kind of crazy in its own way. But then, I'm no scientist; maybe it makes more sense to those who are.