Total Eclipse of the Mind
Today I'm thrilled to share an essay that has nothing to do with apologies. I wrote about chasing solar eclipses, the fallibility of memory, and the value of looking at things only our eyes can see.
You can read my essay in Noema Magazine here: https://www.noemamag.com/total-eclipse-of-the-mind/
I've been trying to write a version of this essay since 2017, when I saw my first eclipse in Wyoming. As a speechwriter, I'm accustomed to having to write fast. But this essay needed time. I've been steadily working on it for the past seven years. As you'll see, it took a totally new direction after I saw my second solar eclipse in 2019. I've been revising it ever since. As a result, this is some of the writing and thinking I'm most proud of. Please keep that in mind as I beg you to read 3,000 words about the relationship between celestial bodies and the way we remember.
Thanks to the many of you who gave me notes along the way, my dad Charles Pevsner for supplying the stunning (but importantly inadequate!) photographs, and to the sun and the moon for being pretty nice to look at together.
And please, if you live in North America, do your best to make your way into the path of totality. The next North American total solar eclipse isn't until 2044. Life is short. Get outside and look at the sun.