A Double Rareness

Left to my own devices, I’d have left our small town at totality’s edge and headed to the center of it all. There, I’d have enjoyed seeing a new place, crowding with people from all walks of life, and traveling home in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Instead, I spent the afternoon in my own backyard on a deck with my husband and nonagenarian parents.

We were four of the millions who spent that rare afternoon looking to the sky. As the moon hid the sun, we heard the birds fall silent and felt the temperature drop. And for 47 seconds the sky darkened, and we saw Venus shining in the sky.

Solar eclipses themselves aren’t all that rare. What’s rare is an eclipse in your own backyard. On average, any particular spot on Earth is in the path of totality only once every 360 years. The last time for our backyard was in 1806. And the next time will be 2099.

My parents won’t be here the next time the shadow of the moon sweeps across our patch of earth. And neither will I.

Just last week, my parents celebrated their 70^th wedding anniversary. Anniversaries themselves aren’t rare. But only one in a thousand couples reach the platinum year.

Sitting on my quiet and darkening deck with three people I love, I began to think about this double rareness. What are the odds, I wondered, of a total solar eclipse and two parents, ages 91 and 95, all showing up at the same time in your own backyard?

No wonder the afternoon felt extraordinary.