Today, a few final thoughts on the Great American Eclipse.
Warning: Do not stare directly at this column without protection.
We Americans aren’t great at one-off events. We like our public spectacles at regular intervals. Witness: Super Bowls, quadrennial presidential elections, seven-year cicadas.
That’s why random events like last week’s Great American Eclipse throw off our internal gyroscopes. In this unsettled state, we are actually more likely to open our minds and learn something.
Almost a week after the big eclipse, I believe I learned or reinforced at least 10 life lessons by watching the sun go dark for a couple of minutes.