GAM 2018 Blog
- Published: Saturday, April 28 2018 09:00
By Grom D. Matthies
It does not work. We can’t click on the Moon to Like/Dislike, retrieve further information about it or change its color. Selling a plot of lunar surface is or should be a crime, whilst howling at, dancing under or sacrificing something for our natural satellite is just a peculiar entertainment to spend time
So, is our natural satellite good for anything?
Painting in oil by Luna Steinbusch
A teenage member in my widespread patchwork family recently produced an oil painting of the Moon. This made me wonder, if picking up the paintbrush was an artistic way of spelling out her name, which translates to Moon, or inspiration induced by the mystery and awe towards the stars all healthy humans somehow share due to our physical connection with the stars.
Prehistoric hunters, homo sapiens or homo anything before that, certainly did use the time around full moon as a light source to surprise any sleepy soon to be tribal dinner. Primal societies, tribal or bigger, had a distinctively close relation with the Moon by considering and treating it as a deity.
The regularity of moon phases, easy observable and infallible, was perfectly suited to serve as a much needed reference for periods of time larger than a few days (month), yet shorter and of more practical use than the timespan between a recurring season (year).
As such, for most of its existence mankind kept a keen eye on the Moon, either out of fear, curiosity, awe, time for tax collection or other, but always deeply rooted in what our Moon provides naturally or through nature.
Awareness towards and usefulness of the Moon was steady throughout the ages and even grew and peaked by the sheer amount of people watching the moment someone sat a clean white boot on its dusty, gray surface.
This happened almost 50 years ago…and then?
Tidal flats in Northern Germany…who took the water?
Image: Lara Holm
Recently I was overlooking a stretch of sandy, flat ground reaching up to the distant horizon. Twice a day this is normal ocean floor. A world heritage and attraction constantly visited by busloads of tourists. The cause for these receding waters, however, is often or even widely misunderstood by said tourists, though comprising mostly citizens from highly developed countries. Yet another family member pointed out, supported by actual conversations, that amongst certain tourists reigns a distinct tendency to believe local inhabitants affirming that the ocean waters are held back by a greedy neighboring country, rather than the Moon being responsible for such a drastic, recurring landscape change through gravitational pull.
A bit more recent, few days after full moon, I had a morning walk through a public park and passed a young woman with a girl child. In that very moment, the girl pointed towards the blue sky exclaiming: “Look, mommy, the Moon!”. With a clearly disbelieving tone, her mother replied that such is not…, just to abruptly cut her response as she apparently discovered a pale moon surrounded by clear blue sky. “Impossible. Something must…” was all I still caught from the young mothers’ voice. This was not a rare demonstration in lack of awareness. Whilst our modern, enlightened, educated and what not advanced society somehow assumes that the Moon is a sole thing of the night, every single Neanderthal very likely knew that the Moon may be visible at any given time of day. Understandably, the latter needed to know this for survival, a modern family does not.
Last year, I was being approached by a local neighbor, who knew about my work in astronomy. He asked “My son (age 16) learned that the Moon is hollow. Is that really true?”. “He learned what?” I had to ask back to regain some control over my thoughts, which apparently all went for a huge party in some part of my brain responsible for total disbelieve.
Expressively thankful for asking first, rather than him spreading a somehow well-refuted hypothesis, I skipped any attempt to squeeze a layman’s version on gravitational pull, mass, density distribution and other issues into a foreseeable two minutes timespan limit. Then our paths separated shortly after, I felt somehow less satisfied, knowing that for now this neighbor and his family had to rely on my word and not on being taught an easy to follow and reproducible explanation. While details about how things work may require some understanding in science, applying common sense and basic knowledge should be enough to prevent us all to fall for most of the conspiracy theories, alien abductions or similar scenarios.
Considering the enormous importance the Moon had, has and permanently will have on our existence on Earth (see other articles in this year’s GAM blog), we developed a serious level of ignorance. Unfortunately, not only towards the Moon. Just following the news about what is going on in this world, suggests, that mankind devolved into a pre-barbaric state, wrapped in a false sense of quality of life. We are equipped with enough knowledge and understanding to make life on this planet decent for every single person. But this knowledge does not get applied for our own and sure not for our collective wellbeing. This is a depressing thought.
There are many, and yet still a tiny minority, who are dedicated in teaching or spreading awareness towards our surrounding and how it works. GAM is a good time to find plenty of them, Some, like astronomers and alike, do teach about our planetary surrounding or the cosmos and some even spread awareness on how all and everything is connected.
Exploring this common connection and developing a critical mind on how nature works, may certainly start with our very own, very special companion in the sky. Tearing down borders rather than creating new ones is certainly of utmost importance. Not only those borders drawn on maps, but also those in our minds, to attenuate and hopefully eliminate all that unnecessary struggle for life, equality, acceptance or simple freedom.
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Over four decades now, Grom D. Matthies writes, teaches, explores, thinks and much too often dreams about astronomy. He tries to promote awareness and scientific literacy in hope to inspire others to engage in a life that is sustainable for all.
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