Lessons Learned from the Moon

This was drafted last night while I was under the full moon. My ode to the moon in 14 parts.



1. The full moon is a glorious thing. Beauty contained in a simple stamp on the sky. It causes one to stop in their tracks on their walk home and put into perspective life's mundane little details.



2. The full moon is big and bright. And although it appears it is coming earlier these days, can still help bridge the divide between a wonderful summer evening where it stays light all night to the cold early pitch black nights of winter.



3. The full moon can help light one's path as they ride their bike to go pick up the weekly food share of produce, because one forgot when they offered up their extra parking spot to friends who are in Cambridge (where there is no free parking), that the tandum parking would block their car and they wouldn't be able to just hop into the car after an extra long day at work to pick up the food before the doors close.



4. The full moon likes to play hide and seek. Although providing light on the town streets - a nice gesture although a bit redundant considering the proliferation of city street lights, it likes to disappear when truely needed along the bike path. Becoming shy and hiding behind the tree canopy.



5. The full moon likes to watch as the slow realization that what once was a simple bike ride is now a difficult/scary/dangerous task and that I really should buy a light. Not to mention, I haven't biked for the last month due to various reasons so add to that list being out of shape.



6. The full moon perhaps watched humorously as one tries to pace themselves the correct distance behind a runner. Close enough so that if an ax-weilding-psycho-jail-jumping-serial-killer-rapist jumped out of the trees they would be able to assist, but yet just far enough away so as not to make the runner think they were being followed by a bike-riding-ax-weilding-psycho-jail-jumping-serial-killer-rapist.



7. The full moon helps at times, trickeling through the trees to provide a scarce amount of light. Just enough, you must note, to prevent ones eyes to fully adjusting to the pitch blackness. And just enought to eliminate mysterious objects - such as abondoned bicycles on the side of the path.



8. The full moon likes to laugh at jokes played on the "blind" biker. Building on the disorientation already created of a familar path transformed in the darkness, the scariest was the apperation of a car without motor heading right towards them - only to discover at the very last moment it was actually two bikers with strong bike lamps.



9. The full moon might have not even been witness to the stumbling upon the town's youth, as it was so far out of sight. It appears that not even the moon is privy to viewing the hanging-out haunts of the bored teenagers that would appear to the biker as dark blobs only when one was a few feet from them causing sudden swerving - multiple times. They seemed proliferic along the path.



10. The full moon definately laughed as the biker realized watermellons are really, really, really heavy if one has to carry them home along with a box full of other produce. After just beating the clock and getting the produce before the doors closed, one almost wishes it was a "light" day for harvesting. No such luck, although it really was just the watermellon that broke the bank. And when I write bank, I mean back of course since teh bungy chords to attach anything to the bike were missing so everything was loaded into the back pack.



11. The full moon watched humorously as the biker slowly made the trek back home, fully loaded like a donkey. And when I write donkey, I really mean donkey, but the kind that might only have a bag on one side, so ends up walking a little crooked. The biker learning that any movement of the body - with the center of mass so drastically shifted, meant an unfamiliar shift in the bike.



12. The full moon peeked in at times to watch the progression home by the biker. Trying to ride as fast as possible to make it home safely, yet being weighed down by food, and coming across invisible dog walkers who insisted on walking on one side of the path while the dog, attached to a leash of course, insisted on walking on the other side of hte path, therefore creating a virtual tire-spike equivalent for any fast moving objects on the path - such as bicyclists.



13. The full moon provides the spot lighting of the biker as they make their way up the last hill across the busy city street intersection to their home, starting to sweat like a dog because of hte weight and too many layers, because it was really cold when they started causing a fleece to be added to the wardrobe but really not needed now, but too close to home to stop to take it off.



14. And finally the full moon is witness to the last of the bikers frustrations of being locked out of the basement causing one to have to run all the way upstairs and then back downstairs and many extra minutes to put away the bike, when all they want to do is drop onto the couch and be done with the bike and nature and the moon.



And that my friends, was my night last night. The moral of the story being: don't be deceived into thinking the moon is your friend simply because it is so beautiful - it may end up leaving you in the lurch. That or simply: don't share with friends.