On Monday, the United States will experience the totality, a full solar eclipse that will move from Mexico into Texas before crossing 14 states and exiting into Canada. Though we previously had a total eclipse in 2017, we will not get another until 2045, and people are rightly excited. In response to this excitement, multiple locations in the country have naturally declared a state of emergency.
It isn’t that we’ve resurrected ancient beliefs about the eclipse. We’re not concerned that the gods are angry at the king, though perhaps we should be, or that the moon blocking the sun is a sign of impending doom. Rather, the states of emergency are out of concern that travelers to the states experiencing the totality might strain emergency services, so local governments are making sure to get their hands ready to scoop up some federal funds should the opportunity arise.
The states of emergency are silly, but the impetus for them is a cause for hope. In 2024, during a time in which our lives have been consumed by the digital realm, thousands and thousands of people will take time from their lives to look up from their screens and enjoy the manifest beauty of God’s creation. That they’ll promptly return to their screens to take awful amateur photos of the eclipse and then post them on social media is less heartening.
I know the lure. As a resident of a state experiencing the full eclipse, the odds that I’ll skip taking a
