FRIENDSHIPS ARE LIKE THE MOON

(Disclaimer: I am not an astronomer nor a philospher. I am just a simple guy trying to understand life in general...and no, I'm not saying people are moons)

At the conclusion of my freshmen year of college, I applied for summer school at a community college to take care of my 1 life science and 1 physical science pre-requisites. My selections: Astronomy and General Biology. For sake of the topic, I will put biology aside.

Astronomy is such a fun class. I find it a bit astronomical (ha ha, get it, astronomy, astronomical...nevermind I'll laugh to myself) that I would use one of the things I learned there to illustrate my latest reflection on friendship. (I'm still laughing at my...[sigh], nevermind.)

Ever wonder about the moon? Believe it or not, we see the same side of the moon (when full), almost always. Is the moon flat? Is it just a stuck piece of bright rock? Answers: No; and not really. The moon is in what's called "synchronous rotation" meaning that the rate at which the moon actually rotates (spins) and the rate at which the moon orbits (revolves) around the earth are the same. There are slight variations called libration, where, depending on the moon's orbital position, a few degrees of extra moon are apparent. The moon is very much active, alive and kicking!

The sychronous rotation is like a constant, similar to how I think a good friendship ought to be. A friend will always show their face to you (and hopefully not 'moon' you...ha ha...[sigh]. Through the good and the hard times, friends provide that constance in our lives, via support, encouragement and honesty. While people have individual experiences, those are the slight variations that simply come with life. In the grand scheme, a friend of several years is like the moon.

Now I realize that as I use this illustration, there is that dark side of the moon we never see. I am not suggesting that we keep the "dark sides" of ourselves from our friends, or those we love. I feel that close friends will alleviate the tendencies to hide those parts of us from them. Then again, we may have friends/acquaintances that are like the dark side of the moon, and we only see the front, always. Again, for sake of the topic, I will return to the original illustration of the constant moon.

Question: What kind of friend are you? What kind of friends 'revolve' around you? I think about these questions for myself, and think I for a good part of my latter life (after age 14) I've been pretty constant as a friend. However, I will be the first to admit, I can totally do much better! There are probably many other concepts and thoughts that can be extracted from the moon illustration, and respectfully, everyone is entitled to their freedom. I realize that during this time of reflection and "How People Grow" series at my church, that there are much deeper aspects of friendship I am still learning to apply. I believe that a better understanding of true and honest friendship is a key element to growing.

Other 'useless' facts about the moon that I remember from that class, 10 years ago:

1. The moon itself is not a source of light. The moon actually reflects about 40% of the sun's light. The planet's reflective property is known as it's albedo.

2. The earth only has one moon. (ha, go figure!)

3. The 'kind' of moon that we see (crescent, waxing/waning gibbous, full) is due to the position of the moon relative to the earth and the sun. Remember, as the earth rotates and orbits the sun, the moon is rotating and orbiting earth.

4. It takes about 27 days for the moon to fully orbit the earth.

5. When you see a full moon and it's kind of orange color, the moon is in Earth's umbral (meaning the earth is directly between the sun and moon).

6. When you see a full moon and it's really bright, the moon is in the Earth's penumbral shadow (meaning the earth is indirectly between the sun and the moon).

7. Similar to Earth's orbit of the sun, the moon has an eliptical orbit about the earth.

Whew, I'm all mooned out now.