The Moon

The moon. I think no matter where we come from, what we’ve done, what we do, where we are, and where we will be, we can all agree that the moon is an object of great beauty. We look up at the dark night sky, even on the nights where no stars come out to shine, and see the moon, shining brightly, its beams dancing gracefully down to the ground. But what is the moon? Obviously, it isn’t made of cheese, and it isn’t some fake planet as questioned by conspiracists, but a giant hunk of space rock. Really, the moon is no more than Earth’s satellite. It has an important job, yes, controlling the tide and allowing night to occur as we know it. But, really, it is not very pretty when you start looking really close. It is uneven and has lots of craters and mountains everywhere. It’s just a gray, barren, planet —not even a planet, a satellite of a planet. No real encapsulating beauty to it in reality. But viewed from the Earth, it is a lovely sight to behold against the dark night sky. Why? Well, it’s the distance. 238,900 miles separates the Earth from the moon. 238,900 miles gives us a different perspective than we may see up close, nitpicking at all the imperfections of its rough, cold surface. Given some distance, and allowing ourselves to see the moon as a whole, not trying to pick out imperfections in its design, allows us to see its beauty. If the moon was sentient —bear with me for a moment, as I know it’s beyond strange to think about if the moon was sentient—, if the moon was sentient, it would probably think itself quite ugly, would it not? With all its clear imperfections- no symmetry, lots of bumps, cracks, and roughness- it would truly think itself an ugly being. But it would have no idea that billions of people down on the beautiful, colorful, vibrant Earth so far off completely adore it and think it so elegant- so divine and of true celestial beauty. Prettier than all the stars, sometimes a beautiful orange, sometimes blue, sometimes surrounded by a hazy cloud, sometimes standing alone in the sky, sometimes surrounded by stars of varying brightnesses. Sometimes it isn’t there at all, and we miss it. Sometimes just a sliver is there for us to see. But all the time, we look up at the night sky to see if the moon is there, to give us comfort on a dark, dreary night, to share its beauty. The moon is truly a beautiful thing, wouldn’t you agree?