Moonshine

I've been looking forward to this night for a couple of weeks. Tonight is host to the full moon of October. Being the first full moon of autumn I hoped to see the beautiful orb of dusky orange that sometimes rises on this night.

I had the usual very busy day at work and wasn't even thinking about tonight's moon when, at 5:13 pm, CDT, my husband, Scott, emailed me to remind me. He included an image of the planet, itself in a dusky hue.

Shortly after, I was driving home and concerned about the overcast sky that was developing. I worried for no reason. At about that moment I caught a glimpse of light in my rear view mirror. There, already high in the sky was the full moon, shining brightly. Alas, it was too high in the sky to be bathed in the autumn color I hoped to see. I did check to see when the moon will rise tomorrow night; it appears that will be at 7:14 pm. Perhaps I'll have a chance to catch it closer to the horizon.

The movie Moonstruck, as might be expected, is dotted with references to the moon. Though many of these are memorable (actually the whole movie is memorable--one of the best scripts I've ever experienced in movie viewing), the one that comes to mind right now takes place in a church graveyard which is being visited by a group of elderly Italian gentlemen who apparently gathered there out of respect for a lady friend who was recently buried. After discussing more serious matters, in an exchange of Italian and broken English one says, "See that bella luna last night?" "Si, si," replies another, "La luna, la bella luna. The moon brings the woman to man. Capice, heh?"

Whether that's an all-encompassing description or not, this woman wishes she could be looking at la bella luna with her man tonight. Even if it wasn't full.