At night, there is one light that shines far beyond all — as it has been doing, for a very long time.
The Moon, boring as it might be named, is that brilliant light, illuminating the darkness over homes, skyscrapers and fields.
But, pause for a second. Is the name Moon boring just because we’ve named all other moons in the solar system something besides “Moon”?
And just what does the word mean, anyway?
As it turns out, the word “moon” comes from the Old English word “mona,” which in turn comes from the Germanic term “menses.” The word menses essentially means month. So essentially you have a celestial object that marks, or keeps track of, the time of month.
Every word comes from somewhere, right? This definition seems pretty appropriate. After all, each month has a full moon, first quarter, last quarter and new moon. Every now and then, we get two full moons or two new moons in a month. But, by and large, the phases adhere to a monthly cycle.
Think about this, too: What if you had no clock, no calendar, no way to measure time? But then you have the moon, which goes through each of its four phases in roughly the same amount of time.
Actually, officially, the moon has eight phases: new, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, last quarter and waning crescent. And each cycle of these phases lasts 29.5 days. That explains how you can get two of one phase in a calendar month.
But telling time by the moon is tried and true, as its own name seems to indicate.
All that said, I suppose we could eventually decide on a proper name for the Moon. But, it would have to be something internationally agreed upon. Perhaps in the future, when humans are settled there, it will have a different name.
I always thought it would be interesting to wake up 200-300 years in the future and see where we’re at. In order to do that, we need to treat each other right. You know that whole “love your neighbor” thing? It’s pretty important. In my opinion, it’s the key to our future, too.
Just making sure you’re still paying attention.
For now, I’ll gaze in wonder as the white, full moon sits high in the sky during warm summer nights, or the ocher crescent hangs near the horizon on cold, winter evenings, as it did earlier this past week.