Full moon over San Francisco

Of course that's why I couldn't sleep last night. I wondered why I was awake at 4 am, 5:40 am, 6:30 am. Tonight, I remembered. The moon looked pretty full last night and it's the same tonight. Walking home after parking my car a block from here at 9:15 pm, I could see my moon shadow. It was a tall man in a warm coat, carrying a computer case. Actually, there were two men, two moon shadows.

At first, I thought someone else might be shadowing me, but a quick glance around confirmed that I was alone -- and besides my two shadows were identical in proportions, angles, and pace.

This caused me to reflect on whether my shadows knew something I didn't know. There was my leading shadow and my following shadow. My forward one and my backward one. My public life, my private life. My optimistic side, my pessimistic side.

Lately, it seems like many of the people I turned to last winter and spring for support as I dealt with my painful series of losses are going through their own ordeals. Their parents have suddenly died. Their marriages are in trouble. Their jobs are in jeopardy.

Accordingly, I find myself in the mode of giving comfort to some who a few short months ago were comforting me. In this way, too, my twin moon shadows were perhaps reflecting back the strange dialectic Hegel and Marx described. For my part, modestly, I propose that the synthesis is always the best place to bring our disconnected selves back together.

p.s. I hope we all can sleep better tonight.

p.s.s Quoting Bob Dylan, "I'll let you in my dream if you'll let me in yours."

p.s.s.s. Then we could sleep together peacefully, right?

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