A Solar Eclipse for the Common Good
I left the house at high noon.
Outdoors, Washington dressed in light spring green with splashes of pink cherry trees. The sun shone, no cloud cover. We earthlings had our eyes on the sky, from Texas to Maine. A solar eclipse was landing.
That was the path of "totality," a harmonic convergence of the sun and moon.
Totality -- a word meaning the moments the moving moon blocks the sun, casting a spell of darkness in daytime. Birds and animals go a little nuts.
But then, so do humans. We're part of the cosmos, after all.
Thousands like me filled the National Mall, and millions gathered in other places -- like Ohio and Niagara Falls -- just had to see what was up.
With my reporter's notebook in hand, the spectacle felt like old times as a Baltimore Sun reporter.
You go out on a story, talk to lots of strangers, scribble their thoughts, return to the newsroom and file the story "on deadline" for the next day's paper (once past your city editor).
That's the drill. And I missed the thrill.
Nowadays, I spend lots of time in the creamy Capitol, the dome in the distance. The House of Representatives is a pitched battle, and the Senate ain't so sweet, either.
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