Wednesday, August 24, 2016

The Waving Moon - by uncle David

Once there was a mad moon.
But the moon had not always been mad. Though she had always been blue, her spirits had not always been that way. This was because the light the sun gave her was just enough to keep her nice and warm, and just bright enough so that mommies and daddies could read a good night story to their kids. Other times, she watched owners take their dogs out for an evening walk, or young lovers walking in her light, hand in hand.
Before mummy and daddy were born, spaceships started landing on her and people started walking on her. She loved having visitors. The first person who walked on her, someone named Neil Armstrong, said this was “one small step for man, but one giant leap for mankind.”
“Wow,” she thought. “I didn’t know it would mean so much for people to visit me.”
These were fun times for the moon. Like when someone draws on your back, the moon felt shivers of delight when people bounced up and down on her surface. Neil Armstrong even stuck an American flag on top of one of her mountains to show how proud America was to be the first country to land on her surface. And in her own way, the moon shared in his delight.
But other times she didn’t like being the moon. The more people who came, the more flags were stuck in her surface, the more noisy and crowded it became, and the more garbage they left behind. “Hey,” she thought, “this is my house! Please stop messing up my house!” This made her mad.
Meanwhile on earth, some of the scientists who had visited the moon learned that it was she who made the oceans wave. When the oceans were calm that was because the moon was calm. Then boys and girls would come to the beach to swim, skip rocks and build sand castles. But every now and again, the moon was mad. Then kids would stay away from the crashing waves, rocks would be left un-skipped and castles unmade. In fact, except for the odd dare-devil wind-surfer, at these times, everybody everywhere stayed away from the mad moon’s waves.
Even spaceships flew past her without even a glance. Though astronauts had come to visit, and some of them even returned; many of them found bigger and better places to go. “Where are they going?” the moon wondered. “Have they discovered something bigger and better?” For a while, she was curious, but most of the tine, she was just lonely. The noise of excited chatter among astronauts was distant history, she missed the feeling of people tickling her surface, and even missed the garbage that people brought. Now the biggest and best man-made thing in space, the International Space Station was receiving all of the attention. She could see it sometimes, but at others it was blocked by the earth. The only option she had now was her waves. As people walked along the beach, would they see her waving?
Some time later, the Russians arrived and stuck their flag in the ground. People who spoke a different language in a different accent arrived more regularly. The moon was pleased to welcome her new friends. But every once in a while, she remembers back to the first people who landed on her surface. “What are they up to now? Are they off to bigger and better things like Mars, Jupiter or learning about Saturn’s rings?”

So when you are at the beach next, watch the waves. Is she angry, is she lonely. Go for a swim and let her give you a hug. Watch her waving at you. And don’t forget to wave back.