moon in the window of my mind

"The more I travel, the more I discover that people everywhere are the same."

I  cannot recall for certain the first time I heard someone say that. I think it was at a Rotary meeting in Oak Grove. One of our members had just returned from southern Africa and was relaying his experiences.

It was, of course, twaddle. People everywhere are not the same. They, like Anna Karenina, may all want to live in the sameness of happy families, as Tolstoy would have it. But, in almost every way possible, individuals everywhere are definitely not the same. Or else they would not be individuals. 

Good grief! I was not the same as the guy who uttered that trite tidbit. And he was happier for it.

Earlier this morning I was up earlier than usual. Omar asked me to drive him to work. (His motorcycle has a gas tank problem.) On the way back to Barra de Navidad from San Patricio, I was greeted by one of those gossamer moments that are there -- then gone.

The sun was just just checking in for work, and the moon was late getting home. With just a sliver of the sun's light reflecting from its rim, the moon looked like one of those rogue fingernail clippings you step on in the dark. All set in subtle pinks and yellows.

I was in a rush to get back to the house to read the newspaper before heading off to church. But, I could not pass by that moment without hesitating. Or stopping. In the vain hope of capturing it for you. The photograph does not do it justice.

While I stood there watching it all fade away into dementia, I thought: "I am standing here experiencing something everyone in the world is experiencing."

Well, I thought that until I came to my senses. People in Australia, where it is tomorrow afternoon, have no idea what I was watching. And even nearby Mexico City did not have a "Do You See What I See?" moment.

Some things in life are simply narcissistic. They are for us. And us alone. No one else will experience them quite the same.

Or, as Sondheim (as he often does), so succinctly puts it:

"Best to take the moment present
As a present for the moment."

I wish you could have been there this morning with me. But, had you been, our experiences would have been just as different from each other's as the photograph is different from my memory.

People everywhere are not the same. And we can be glad for it.