Eclipsing Divisions

I’m not American, but ever since the 2016 U.S. election I’ve been obsessed with the gong show that is American politics.

From my home in Toronto, Canada, I check in on the latest developments through 24-hour news channels. Most days, it feels like I’m watching a nation divided to its core; separated into two groups with completely different values and beliefs.

I watch because I’m worried for the human race.

If such division can happen in one of the most stable, most democratic countries in the world — the nation that declared all men “created equal” and expanded that definition over centuries — then perhaps nowhere is immune.

But this week something wonderful happened. For a few hours, the United States was united once more, transfixed on the total eclipse that traveled across the continent.

For a brief time, there was no division, no two sides, only the united voice of a nation in awe, reminded of how small we are in our own solar system, let alone this great universe.