Eclipse of the total heart

When thinking of beacons who have had a great impact on the history of mankind, I could think of many great leaders, two of interest are Ghandi and Mandela, both for some reason had bases in South Africa and of whom I am very fond of and look up to.I am not going to dwell on the achievements of either, there is plenty of literature on these two men, I am rather interested in another aspect of these two men’s lives, and that is their relation with their family. Both men have had a big strife with their family members, ghandi with his son and Mandela with his wife and daughter for some time. It puzzles me how such great men who influenced millions, could not make amends with their family. What was it that caused this rift? While this topic could be a research topic on its own, my mind wanders seeking some answers on this. The easy answer could be that they were too busy serving a big cause that they meanwhile forgot their family, but this sounds too simple and naïve for such great leaders.

While watching a full moon the other day, an idea came to my mind. The moon is an incredible item in our lives. It is a beacon for many, the most obvious are sailors and shipmen, but it also affects many of us laymen and women. Artists use it a lot in their work, poets get inspired by it, photographers are fascinated by it, the moon goes into transformations and represents change, nurturing, harvest and beauty. It is a beacon that guides us through the darkness in life, unlike the sun, the moon shines in an all dark environment. The sun on the other hand, is an element with a very specific purpose, light up our day, the sun does not have to fight the darkness, when present there is only light, the sun is constant, does not go into transformation, does not cause ebbs and flows, it is dedicated to provide us with light, like a parent. The moon is more like us, or what we want to be, be a source of light in the darkness, shed light on other stars, transform and change, overcome challenges and come out again stronger and brighter, it is a collective icon for us and has been instrumental in many cultures and religions. While the sun is much larger, it is not a source of inspiration for many artists, many of the pictures you see are either for a sunrise or a sunset, ie when it is actually moving or in contact with another surface, going into a sea, or rising behind a mountain. We all need the sun but look up to the moon for inspiration, there is a little bit of the moon in each of us, the cycle of the moon is synonymous to the cycle of life we go through.

What I came to realize is that when you are a moon, a guiding light, a leader maybe you can’t be a sun, for those don’t meet. Those who love you should accept that and not expect you to be a sun only for them, and rather than asking for an eclipse, let the moon outshine on all those seeking inspiration and direction, and maybe, just maybe Ghandi and Mandela‘s family members were asking two moons to be dwarfed into a sun..