Ring of Fire

and how we misfired it

Photo by Marek Okon on Unsplash

On October 14, 2023, we had a rare annular eclipse.

Annular means ring-shaped. It’s when the moon's shadow fills the sun and leaves just enough of the Sun’s edge to create what they call the “Ring of Fire.”

Here’s a really interesting link I found on all of this if you want to geek out a little: https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/annular-solar-eclipse.html

One my favorite creatives, Austin Kleon, had a neat post on the event as well. Check it out here: https://austinkleon.com/2023/10/18/eclipse-party-and-afterparty/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

I had returned from a trip where I shattered my Apple Watch. It was disappointing, but it was old (a series 2) and so I needed to hit the Apple Store.

My wife and I grabbed some lunch and decided to walk down to the store. She hates the craziness of the Apple store so she went, I assume, to spend money at Sephora or some place like that.

Everyone in the store was buzzing about the eclipse. It was to take place in the next half-hour. The young man who helped me get the watch said he didn’t even know it was happening, but everyone was talking about it.

“Learn anything interesting about it? I haven’t been following it either.”

“Nah. Just a bunch of jibber jabber. Just chit-chat passing the time,” he said.

I thought what a missed opportunity for him and the customer. Clearly, there was a sense of excitement in the air. He could have really used the eclipse to spark some interesting conversations. But he didn’t. He just politely smiled while waiting for their product(s) to arrive for checkout.

By the time I left the store, there was a crowd on the street. Some using special glasses to view the eclipse (we were slow to the party and a little bummed we didn’t have some!). People without the glasses were holding their phones up, hoping to take videos or pictures of it.

As I waited on a bench for my wife, I kept a close eye on the crowd. I was fascinated. People who have clearly come together for such an interesting event weren’t even talking to one another about it. If an alien had come down right then, they would have thought we were whack. We looked like those little mutant things from Toy Story just looking up, waiting to be picked by “The Claw!”

I tried engaging a few people about it, but no real response. I was a little shocked at how annoyed at least two people seemed to be at my attempted conversation.

As I looked out into a courtyard where families and couples and all sorts of individuals were gathering, the lack of conversation buzz was noticeable. Everyone was looking up, and no one was talking about it. Even as it happened, the only audible gasps you could hear were the oohs and ahhs but no real conversation. It was weird.

Am I being punked?

After everything was over, everyone went back to their phones to see what pictures they managed to capture. And then everyone dispersed and went about their Saturday. What a missed opportunity, I thought.

This amazing and scientifically cool event could have been the perfect opportunity to engage a stranger in conversation and perhaps even do a little Rippling. But in the end, it seemed like everyone kept to themselves.

Sure, a mom might have asked little Timmy, “Wasn’t that cool?” or “You didn’t look directly at the sun, right?” But other than that, our alien observer would indeed be confused if any of us noticed other humans just steps away from us.

I can imagine the debrief back at the alien ship. “Strange, disconnected species down there. I don’t think we want to stop and share our technology with them. They seem too self-absorbed to appreciate it.”

I would have to agree…. after setting up my new fancy Apple Watch.

Ripple On!!!