The moon is boring. It moves and changed in a predictable pattern. It has no life and a pitiful atmosphere. We do not look up and think “Oh my gosh! It’s the moon!” At first glance, there is nothing outstanding about our orbital friend.
But, the moon is also spectacular. Everybody, everywhere, all across the globe is looking at the same moon at night. There is only one. The moon that shines over Paris and Tokyo and New York and Los Angeles is the same one. Seven billion people look up and see the same giant rock hovering above us. Seven billion is such a huge number that I do not think anyone can accurately comprehend how many people that is. If a number is past around 10 thousand, I simply know that’s a lot of people. I cannot imagine 9 billion people in one place. And yet here we are.
However, today’s global population isn’t the only ones who have seen the moon. Every human who has ever lived has seen the same moon. The night sky had been inspiring men, women, children, scientists, writers, philosophers, and just about everyone who looks up since the dawn of humanity. Everyone knows the dead outnumber the living. But again, I do not know if anyone can know how truly outnumbered we are. So many people from so many places and so many times have all been looking at the same exact moon. It doesn’t move, and it doesn’t change much. It only stays.
There’s still more. People and humans are not the only ones who have inhabited this earth. Creatures big and small, extinct and otherwise, have all seen the big white thing in the sky. They do not know or care what it is, but it’s there nonetheless. They’ve seen it and so have we.
Now were going back to The Beginning. The beginning that is so far behind is that is demands capitalization. Before there were people or dinosaurs or even life on the chunk of rock we have since named earth, there was the moon, still hovering silently next to Earth. Perpetually held in place by the planet’s gravity, the moon remains. There’s no one to see it, no one to acknowledge it, no one to be inspired by it, no one to not care about it. No one has an opinion of the moon because no one exists yet. Earth is quiet and pure, but lifeless. There’s nothing happening yet and nothing close to what we know today will be happening for millennia. Life, as we know it or otherwise, does not exist. Not yet. But, eventually life happens and keeps happening and happening and happening until here we are, driving in cars, going to school, going to work, writing a book, listening to music, worrying about friends, and other mundane things. I am here now too, writing an article and once again, there’s hardly a thought given to the moon.
Perspective sure is a funny thing.