Speaking of collective experiences, I’ll be in a car today headed toward one, whether barreling or crawling, with my fingers crossed. We live a couple hours east of the Path of Totality for today’s eclipse and decided to attempt it as a daytrip — quite possibly along with tens of thousands of others in the area. Which means maybe we’ll get to our chosen viewing destination in time, maybe we’ll make it to the Path and simply pull over on the side of the road wherever we are at that moment, or maybe stand-still traffic will leave us short of the Path, for the second time in seven years.

In 2017, when the Path encompassed Nashville — where we lived at the time and could have simply stood in our own backyard or hung out with friends — we didn’t realize what a big deal it was, and inadvertently made plans to visit family in Pennsylvania that weekend. We did our best to make it back that morning, but wound up pulling over somewhere in Kentucky to watch an ordinary partial eclipse, so uneventful we might not have even noticed had we not known to look up. The next day in Nashville, everyone we knew responded as if we’d just told them a loved one had died when they heard that we missed the total eclipse, with its midday nightfall, 360-degree sunset, and magical hush. (Every single one of them used the phrase ‘life-changing.’) So this year, we’re giving it another shot! Wish us luck.

Where are you today, and will you see total eclipse? If you’re in the Path, or have been before, I’d love to hear about your experience! Hell, tell me about any life-changing experience you’ve had! I’ll be in the car all day …

//

If you’re looking for a good non-eclipse-related read today, this week’s unlocked gem from the Paris Review archives is the Art of Fiction interview with Louise Erdrich from 2010, which you can pair with their new follow-up interview.

//

[ IMAGE: Total eclipse photo by Eclipse Chasers on Pexels.com ]