The eclipse drew a hundred of us to the ancient meadow hill that had seen better eclipses. This one got to about 90%, so the birds noticed and the light got weird. But it was still too sunny so we had to look at each other to decide if it had actually come and gone.
The last really good one was in 129 when the Romans had their boot on the neck of Brigante tribe. They would probably would have watched from the hill across the Aire Valley where a modest neolithic stone circle has seen a hundred eclipses. The Romans huddled in their posh villa.
In 629 another eclipse darkened Skipton briefly. The Romans left a clutter of petty kingdoms when they left. The Vikings would come a bit later. Skipton was part of Craven that survived in the fluid boundaries of the Saxons and Anglos, with everyone keeping an eye on the crazies to the north later known as Scots. This was not really a “civilization falls in flames” situation like our squabble feels like to us. But maybe it was more what the formerly proud Americans will be living through for the next couple of decades. The people kept their name—still called Craven, 2,000 years after Hadrian visited the tribes. But everything changed.
Even an incomplete astrological phenomenon puts our little human squabbles in context. It briefly gets my mind off of how ICE is writing down license plates in church parking lots to track Christians resisting our wanna-be petty king. They can just ask for mine. In 70 days his chariot’s wheels will fall off when the new Congress is elected. It might take till next March for them to start cleaning up the shambles, but they will do so. This may may not seem of astrological scale, but it is our little tribe and it matters to us.
We fight among ourselves like the Brigantes did before the Romans, who rolled in like China with ascendant technologies. My new boat heater is Chinese and is powered by Chinese solar panels as is the drone that shot this picture of it.
America may not be of astrological scale, but it’s ours and we should do the best we can in our time. Lets start by ridding ourselves of this petty tyrant and his lesser spawn who are so shamelessly leaving our government a hollowed out shambles. This collapse of democracy is impossible to explain to our British friends, since the whole point of the revolution was to get rid of their shameless tyrant. The Brits are not naive about the self-serving American people, as he is not our first transactional leader. Churchill was fighting the Nazis with nothing but his oratory from his London bunker while we were callously turning away inconvenient Jewish ships and bargaining to trade destroyers for Caribbean islands. We did eventually show up to help, but only after a river of British blood had flowed out of a thousand villages. Even so the Brits still honor us in ways we are now radically disrespecting. Not easy to be an American in a pub these days.
And its a lot harder to be an American in a Quaker meeting! We’ll be part of the remarkable Quaker silent march for peace in London September 19th. And we’ll be back to North Carolina to vote. And we’ll be part of the people rising up to ensure the petty tyrant is peacefully ushered back to whatever golden rock he crawled out from. Let him keep all his stolen crap; just go away.
Humans have understood the movement of planets for millennia. The Aztecs, Mayan, Lascaux and Druids all had their versions of stone circles to precisely capture the first light of the new season. Our IPhones are just the latest technology to tell us when the totality would pass over us in the meadow as we stood in our moment of awe.
How odd it is that we continually forget the arts and crafts of human relationships that make life possible. Every generation has to relearn how to deal with Roman provincials and their tribal underlords. Or the petty kings of Craven. Or the brothers in the colonies who were so clever with their 3/5th of a human arithmetic, as they spoke of natural rights of all people. And our shambles of a government now.
We have unprecedented connectional tools that somehow fail to connect us at all.The tyrants and their entrepreneurial vassals seem so powerful. But maybe it too easy for us to speak truth to the power who have everything but truth to work with, so we underestimate how much power we have. Blogs are like drones in this new era. They may not seem like much, but notice who is controlling Hormuz.
We must claim our lives in the places and predicaments in which we live now. The Brigantes couldn’t vote, but we can. So before reaching for the spear, make sure you are registered to vote and make damn sure your vote is counted.
It is not too late for money to matter for people you wish to govern. TC and I keep sending money to candidates like Roy Cooper and, locally, Amy North. It makes me happy to send funds to Talarico (my favorite seminary student) and Dan Koh, Howard’s son in Massachusetts. And Vote Common Good, William Barber, Interfaith Alliance and Move On. Don’t forget your local democratic party office. They are the ones that cross the finish line at precinct level.
And don’t just send your money, get on their websites, volunteer and show up.
Now.
Don’t wait for the next eclipse.
////
Please consider subscribing for free. It helps me know what works.
