{"id":241,"date":"2015-11-07T02:10:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-07T02:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klynnlewis.com\/maybles\/?p=241"},"modified":"2022-02-07T03:09:37","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T03:09:37","slug":"there-is-no-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klynnlewis.com\/maybles\/there-is-no-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"There is No Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A friend and I are traveling east on the freeway one evening directly toward a bright, gigantic full moon rising over the horizon. I call my wife so we can share the experience vicariously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHoney, go outside and look at the moon. It is beautiful!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay. When will you be home?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbout 30 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, see you then. I will check out the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several minutes pass. My phone rings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHello?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere is it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe moon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know that, but which side of the house?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think about the orientation of our house compared to the direction we are driving and the location of the rising moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt should be outside the back door, looking east.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t tell me directions. I don\u2019t do directions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, go straight outside the back door and look up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay. See you soon.\u201d Click.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few more minutes pass. My phone rings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHello?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe looked out back, we looked out front. There is no moon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am looking at it right now. It is huge. Go stand outside in the backyard and look up. There is no way you can miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hear footsteps, a door opening, footsteps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are standing in the backyard. Looking up. We don\u2019t see the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook around. It is right there in the sky. I don\u2019t see how in the world you can miss it. It is big, bright, and beautiful!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, we\u2019ll keep looking.\u201d Click.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly thereafter, I arrive home. I walk in the front door and a couple of my family members are sitting in the living room watching TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you see it?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou are playing some weird joke on us,\u201d they reply. \u201cWe looked all over. We went outside up and down the street out front, and traipsed all over the backyard. There is no moon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am standing in the living room right in front of them. The back blinds are open and I can see outside. I observe the people looking past me toward the TV behind me. I wonder if they actually got up, or even bothered to turn around and look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you even get up and look?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou looked outside? In the backyard? Up in the sky?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no moon,\u201d they insist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can see the moon from here,\u201d I inform them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I can. I am standing in the living room, right in front of them, and I can see the moon through the window outside in the sky. Big, bright, beautiful. There is no way to miss it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re kidding. Stop playing around and sit down. There is no moon tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, but only if you will stand up and look outside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reluctantly they stand up and turn around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHey, there\u2019s the moon! It wasn\u2019t there a few minutes ago. What did you do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I think maybe they are crazy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t do anything. You are telling me you not only turned around to look, but you got up, went outside, and looked around?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe promise we did. We looked all over, and that moon was not there until just now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intrigued, I walk outside. They follow me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is possible, I suppose, that the moon \u2013 from this vantage point \u2013 has just now become visible over the tops of those distant houses and tree line. And that I, driving on a long, flat freeway without obstructions, could have seen the moon earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSee! We told you! There was no moon!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe you could not see it, but, yes, there is a big, bright, beautiful, full moon tonight. It is there, plainly visible, right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t see it when we looked. There was no moon until you walked in the house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust because you couldn\u2019t see it doesn\u2019t mean it wasn\u2019t there!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They go back in the house while I linger outside in the brightening darkness, illuminated by the reflected light of the sun bouncing toward earth off our giant moon, clearly visible and rising higher and higher in the eastern sky. When I finally return inside, my wife asks, \u201cWhat were you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLooking at the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat moon?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Published by in Meat and Potatoes for the Soul 2<\/a><\/em>, \u00a9 2015 by K. Lynn Lewis<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A friend and I are traveling east on the freeway one evening directly toward a bright, gigantic full moon rising over the horizon. I call my wife so we can share the experience vicariously. \u201cHoney, go outside and look at the moon. It is beautiful!\u201d \u201cOkay. When will you be home?\u201d \u201cAbout 30 minutes.\u201d \u201cOkay,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,4],"tags":[29,11,27],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maybles","category-non-fiction","tag-life","tag-maybles","tag-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klynnlewis.com\/maybles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klynnlewis.com\/maybles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klynnlewis.com\/maybles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klynnlewis.com\/maybles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klynnlewis.com\/maybles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/klynnlewis.com\/maybles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243,"href":"https:\/\/klynnlewis.com\/maybles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions\/243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klynnlewis.com\/maybles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klynnlewis.com\/maybles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klynnlewis.com\/maybles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klynnlewis.com\/maybles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}