From the Cycle: “What a fool knows about chocolate… the tinfoil wrapping he eats and throws away the piece!” – anonymous saying
I forgot to tell you (probably all this heat is to blame) …
I found out that day that there was a lunar eclipse. Quite interested, around nine o’clock – ish, I set up with my entire family in a street crossing from where I had perfect view. It was starting to show up. We were all staring at the moon and some of us (specifically me) were focused on not losing any details. So absorbed we were that it wasn’t until a while later that I noticed the dog looking at the “moon show” (I swear I hadn’t shown him anything with my finger – he was just looking at the moon). Attracted by our attention and attitude, some of those who passed by also remained to contemplate. Within minutes, a large group had gathered, vibrating like a beehive – there were many comments, but all with a whispered voice.
At one point, two women and a man with a child on his shoulders approach. From the edge of our group, an eight-to-nine years old boy throws a decoy:
– We’re watching the eclipse. Why don’t you guys stop and watch?
– What eclipse, baby? – says the older woman.
– How, don’t you know it’s a lunar eclipse now?
– Oh, it’s not an eclipse, child – continues the woman, from her all-knowing adult height – it’s just a full moon. It’s not until a few days later that the werewolves will start eating out of it, you’ll see.
– No, no! It’s a lunar eclipse! – fight back the kid unflinchingly. I mean it, the Earth interposes between the Sun and the Moon. The eclipse is partial and has a magnitude at peak of nearly 25 percent and will be seen in a few minutes – at 9:20 p.m. sharp.
I can’t describe in words the silence that has been drawn… It was like the cars weren’t even running around…
– Well, well, well! What a lot you do know, little man – does not back off the “great” woman. Then, hoping to regain her prestige, she tries to confuse him:
– But what about a solar eclipse, did you see one?
– Yes, two years ago, in March. And it was partial as well!
(Interestingly, no one thought to verify what the tiny boy said. We were all convinced that this was the way it was… and we could hardly help but laughing.)
With her honour flattened to pieces, the woman closes the hostilities and concludes:
– Come on, honey, let’s go home, if there’s going to be an eclipse, there is going to be put on TV, on the News, and we’ll figure it out…
Then a popular wisdom came to my mind: parents teach children to speak and children teach parents to shut up. I had yet to prove that these popular wisdoms don’t really fit in the real world…
***
How many times do we do the same? How many times do we refuse to see what’s right in front of our eyes just because our ego would have its authority broken?