Sabbathought: Brief report from our man in southern Utah on solar eclipse---film at 10.

Actually there'll be no film on the ten o'clock news; I didn't take my camera.  But I noticed all the other 3000 watchers did.

I drove forty miles north to Kanarraville, which was advertised as the prime spot in all of Utah to view the annular solar eclipse.  I had to look up "annular" so I wouldn't be drawn into thinking it meant annual or something similar. Turns out it means "forming a ring" so that an annular eclipse describes "a thin outer ring of the sun's disk not covered by the smaller dark disk of the moon" (Webster).  And that's exactly what we saw.

I've always been fascinated to note that the sun and the moon appear to be very similar in size from our vantage point on earth.  Of course, the sun is in reality much larger but appears the same size because it is much further away.

Here's a bit of relevant trivia:  the second contestant to win $1 million on the American version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? --- Dan Blonsky --- had to answer this for his million-dollar question: What is the approximate distance from the earth to the sun?

I thought that a simple million-dollar question.  We should all know that, I thought.  How about you, do you know the answer?

The four choices given were: A. 9.3 million miles,  B. 930 million miles,  C. 930,000 miles,  D. 93 million miles.

Dan got it right with D.  93 million miles.  I figured most people would know that.

A $500,000 question once asked for the circumference of the earth at the equator.  Another easy one? They're all easy if you know the answer!  24,900 miles seems simple to figure out from the choices given? Perhaps not.  I just think such trivia should be general knowledge (see our post three months ago on The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America).  We should all know the parameters of the solar system and the planet on which we live. Yes? . . . in case we have to travel around at some future time.

One million-dollar winner only struggled over one question: Who was the first settler and governor of the Utah Territory?  Choices:  A. Brigham Young,  B. Alfred Cumming,  C. Wilford Woodruff,  D. Joseph Smith.  Lucky for him, the audience knew it was Brigham.  He suspected it was Joseph (who never came to Utah).

Enough of that. Back to the eclipse.

There were hundreds of cars parked on each side of the road at little Kanarraville (population 300).  All of the thousands of people seemed to spend most of their time with their cell phones and ipods, perhaps checking out online reports and live video of the eclipse, with their backs to the sun.  It reminded me of the rag-tag bunch gathered in Close Encounters of the Third Kind to witness the UFO fly-by.

I sat in the car for a couple of hours and contemplated the scene, fascinated at the occasion and full of anticipation. I pondered on the surrounding colors, the reds and honey hues of the rocky hills, and the lush greens of the foliage.  As the eclipse reached its annular climax of full coverage, the atmosphere changed.  The colors went to pastel hues of almost a psychedelic aura.  It made me think of the colors in the 1950s movie South Pacific.  The camera lens had a color filter added for the scenes of Bali Hai, to heighten the gorgeous colors of the tropics and for dramatic effect.  That was what it felt like tonight, as the twilight gathered quickly, but then full daylight returned an hour later.  Eerie and beautiful.

As the moon first started to inch across the sun it resembled a pie with a piece missing.  Then it looked like the Pac Man game of early computer lore as the moon gradually gobbled up the sun.

Eventually the full annularity was reached and to me it resembled a giant wedding ring, vibrating with rainbow colors and profound energy as the halo effect throbbed and shimmied with power.

A family parked just in front of me came to me and offered special viewing glasses. "We noticed you had no glasses to see it with.  Take a look through these."  The effect was total darkness with a different picture of the event as the moon seemed to fill more of the sun's space than was visible to the naked eye.  I thanked the family and we visited for several minutes.  They had driven down from Salt Lake, some 300 miles. Many likely drove even further.  I exulted with them over the singularity of what we were witnessing, marveling at the awesome majesty of it all.  I said, "I don't know if you're LDS (they were) but it reminds me of the passage in section 88 of the Doctrine and Covenants: " . . . and any man who hath seen any or the least of these hath seen God moving in his majesty and power" (v. 47), and they agreed.  We chatted on how baffling that anyone could think, let alone believe, that all this was some random spontaneous event that the sun and moon had somehow configured by themselves.  I can never fathom how people can think that way.  They agreed.  I thanked them for their kindness and we had a lovely home teaching visit.

I read some years ago from Hugh Nibley that the Egyptian papyrii Joseph translated spoke of the earth being in quarantine, as part of the divine plan, with no contact with other planets, whereas they enjoy some measure of communication among themselves.  This is a special earth, as shown by the fact that the Savior came to this one to perform His Atonement that would affect billions of earths like this.  This is where He got His body.  Special insight.  I take it that this insight answers the whole extra-terrestrial / UFO visit phenomenon embraced by a good number of folk.  It seems to be confirmed by D&C 130:5 and other glimpses in the Book of Abraham.

Did you know that Joseph translated over one hundred times more from those papyrii than the five chapters we currently have in the Book of Abraham?  We could have had much more treasure from Joseph, but what would we have done with it?

As I drove home I played hide-and-seek with the sun / moon eclipse as the mountains obscured them from view.  And I thought on the fact that perhaps the doctrinal insight for the whole experience was the idea expressed by Joseph McConkie some years ago.  That most teachers cause what he called a "spiritual eclipse" by standing in the way of the Son when they teach His gospel, instead of letting the full light and glory of the Savior shine through by relying on His scriptures rather than on manuals and lesson supplements and videos and lesser things.

These were my thoughts.

Our man in southern Utah signing off.  Back to the studio. . . .