The Life of Lou Ruppert

Darkness

The eclipse was a great experience for me last night. I got to watch the moon go dark and then come back again. I’ve seen parts of other ones before, but it’s always been summer, so the timing never lined up right for me to see one when I had the patience to. It’s a boring process from the perspective of a modern enlightened man. You’re watching the shadow of a big rock creep across a smaller rock whirling around in the middle of nothing. What is there to get excited about?

Last night, I decided to take a different perspective. I would spend the eclipse imagining it as best I could from the perspective of one of my ancestors three thousand years ago. What would the eclipse look like to a guy whose culture never told him the myths and bedtime stories of the two rocks spinning in the void, and the tiny rays of light doing a complicated mathematical dance to produce the meaningless show he was watching? To this guy, maybe a giant creature was eating the moon. How would he know when to plant if the moon was eaten up? Or what would this thing eating the moon eat next? How did it climb up there? What else would disappear from the heavens? If it could happen to the moon, it could happen to the sun. They’re about the same size and do approximately the same thing. What kind of omen was this?

The conditions were perfect. It was brutally cold out. The cloud cover would come in at random times and produce a kind of horror film effect. There was a light prickly snow that fell like raindrops, but didn’t obscure the view. There was a biting wind, and it would ring the neighbors’ windchimes that sounded just like the cowbells I heard when I was in the Alps. Occasionally it would creak the creaky tree on my neighbor’s property. For a few moments, I was able to suspend disbelief, and as the reddish crescent swallowed up my moon, it seemed perfectly rational to wonder if some Lovecraftian horror was about to come ravage the earth and everything I held dear.

Light

When the moon finally sent the first gleaming sliver of its all-clear signal, I went back inside to fogged glasses. While Earth has luckily escaped unscathed, I was not so lucky. I woke up with my sinus cold much worse than it was. I find myself closing my eyes randomly all day, as if to sleep, but not out of sleepiness. I’ve got uneasy chills and no mental clarity, as you can probably guess if you’ve read this far. Or not.

BOSS

I used the sickness as an excuse to order my favorite Chinese food from Mr Stirfry. It’s about a block from my house. They have a dish called “Garlic Two-Kinds” (these people really need more creativity with their names) which has giant whitey-with-his-chopsticks friendly pork pieces, giant shrimp, and just the right spiciness. Garlic is supposed to help fight colds, apparently, so that was all the justification I needed. When I got my receipt, it drove home the lessons from the book I finished yesterday about the Chinese being a rigidly hierarchical society. The receipt said: "Server: BOSS" Not something like the more typically American “Hi, I’m Jim, and I’m the manager of branch #245 of the franchise. Let’s be friends.” No, this basically said “I am in charge, and that is all you need to know. Here is your food.” I like it. I smiled all the way home.

Erin

My friend Erin, the future Chinese missionary, stopped by my house for some finishing touches on her laptop before she goes to our training center in Senegal next week. I’ll probably throw her blog onto the blogroll once she gets situated over there. She’s not a prolific writer, but she takes good photographs and plans to dabble in videography if she has time. I hope she does, because there are a lot of fascinating sights over there. Bon Voyage, Erin!

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