Monster Nephew's 1st Birthday and the Full Moon Phenomenon
Today has been such a bizarre day at the library and I attribute that to the fact that there will be a full moon tomorrow night.
In
the midst of all this madness, I had to pause and reflect on a year ago today when my nephew, Monster A, was born. On my lunch break I called my sister, who put me on speaker phone so that I could sing “Happy 
Birthday,” to Monster A, who promptly hung up on me when I was finished-I kid you not. I think the full moon has gotten a hold of him too.
Back at the desk I began to notice signs of edginess (all full moon related as far as I am concerned): People complaining to me about cell phones, irritable patrons, and snappish students. Now don’t get me wrong, these are normal signs from day to day, but today it seemed that there were more cases than normal. Did you know that crime rates for certain violent offensives rise around the time of the full moon? And it has been noted that dog bites sometimes increase as well around this lunar cycle.
I really believe that there is something animalistic that is within us, and is called to come out on this most crazy of nights. Didn’t anyone else wonder about how the words “lunar” and “lunacy” come from the same roots? There is a madness beyond our control that comes alive when the moon is full. I believe that things like werewolves are based in old cultures realizing this time when people become strange and act differently for whatever reasons. The term has been misconstrued, “were,” means man, and “wolf,” we know as the animal, but another definition that can be found for the word “wolf” via Dictionary.com is, “a cruelly rapacious person.” The moon calls out our instinctive greedy, self serving nature; our hungry other. That is the true meaning…there is a werewolf in all of us.
In
the midst of all this madness, I had to pause and reflect on a year ago today when my nephew, Monster A, was born. On my lunch break I called my sister, who put me on speaker phone so that I could sing “Happy 
Birthday,” to Monster A, who promptly hung up on me when I was finished-I kid you not. I think the full moon has gotten a hold of him too.Back at the desk I began to notice signs of edginess (all full moon related as far as I am concerned): People complaining to me about cell phones, irritable patrons, and snappish students. Now don’t get me wrong, these are normal signs from day to day, but today it seemed that there were more cases than normal. Did you know that crime rates for certain violent offensives rise around the time of the full moon? And it has been noted that dog bites sometimes increase as well around this lunar cycle.
I really believe that there is something animalistic that is within us, and is called to come out on this most crazy of nights. Didn’t anyone else wonder about how the words “lunar” and “lunacy” come from the same roots? There is a madness beyond our control that comes alive when the moon is full. I believe that things like werewolves are based in old cultures realizing this time when people become strange and act differently for whatever reasons. The term has been misconstrued, “were,” means man, and “wolf,” we know as the animal, but another definition that can be found for the word “wolf” via Dictionary.com is, “a cruelly rapacious person.” The moon calls out our instinctive greedy, self serving nature; our hungry other. That is the true meaning…there is a werewolf in all of us.
I have recently fallen in love with the show “Northern Exposure,” which ran from 1990-1995. I love how Chris, the disc jockey in town, opens many shows with, “this is Chris in the morning,” and he shares his deep philosophical mind wanderings, reads from great books, and plays awesome music. My favorite episode, entitled: "Aurora Borealis (A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups),” from the 1st season chronicles the going-ons in Cicely, Alaska as the full moon approaches and everyone in town starts to get a little crazy. This is what Chris had to say about the full moon:"There's a dark side to each and every human soul. We wish we were Obi-Wan Kenobi, and for the most part we are, but there's a little Darth Vader in all of us. Thing is, this ain't no either-or proposition. We're talking about dialectics, the good and the bad merging into us. You can run but you can't hide. My experience? Face the darkness. Stare it down. Own it. As brother Nietzsche said, being human is a complicated gig. So give that ol' dark night of the soul a hug. Howl the eternal yes!"
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