blister in the sun

 

something felt metaphorical about the way we viewed this latest solar eclipse. without glasses or protective gear, we were forced to look away from the sun--at the ground, the fence, the wall--to all the places where the other parts of nature would safely show us what was happening up there in the distant universe. watching the shadows, the spaces between the leaves projected onto the environment around us like small beacons of that celestial occurrence. 

really, though, maybe this is the way we actually experience everything in life. repercussions, symptoms, damage, even beauty, all coming from some distant event. plato and his cave.