The Moon, of course, is Always There

by:Aaditya

The moon, of course, is always there–

This was a writing prompt given to me by a friend, over a year ago. I was feeling bored, and wanted some inspiration to write something, so I asked them for a writing prompt. And they gave me this. A *little* procrastination later, I’m finally doing something with that prompt. 

The moon, of course, is always there– except when it’s not. 

Everyone knows about the phases of the moon. How it waxes and wanes as it goes from the new moon day to the full moon day and back. 

Back in the tenth grade, we were discussing some poetry or prose in my English class, I don’t remember which. During the discussion, our teacher threw a random fact at us. He said that in literature, women are often compared to the moon, and men are compared to the sun. He said that this is because women menstruate, and are “unavailable” (sexually, I assumed)  for a few days when they do the way the moon becomes “unavailable,” and that men are like the sun, as they are available all year round. For some reason, him saying this stuck with me, and I still occasionally think about this. At the time, I wasn’t educated enough about gender, so I didn’t correct him by saying  “not all women menstruate and not everyone that menstruates is a woman.” I probably should’ve once I became educated enough. 

The moon, of course, is always there– except when it’s not– floating around in the night sky. 

Ever wonder how the moon and moonlight became a symbol of beauty and elegance and whatnot. It’s literally just a large rock orbiting the earth (another larger rock, but significantly more beautiful than the moon.) And, it doesn’t even have its own light. It just reflects light from the sun. If a human did something similar, one would call them a charlatan, or unoriginal. Why then, do we praise the moon?

I sometimes feel that humans forget this about the moon. Or, they tend to purposely ignore it, just to remain oblivious. Or maybe to look for meaning in something that doesn’t really have a lot of meaning.

Is that the case with just the moon, or is it like that with everything?

(It does look beautiful though, shining brightly in the night sky. A sight to watch.)

The moon, of course, is always there–

But WHAT is it that is there? Is it just this large rock floating around in space, or is there some sort of a spirit or a moon god residing there? Is it Artemis, the Greek Goddess of the Moon and the hunt? Is it Chang’e, the Chinese goddess, voiced and portrayed so perfectly by another goddess, Philippa Soo, in the movie Over the Moon? Is it the Hindu moon god? Or is everything just a series of myths proliferated by our society, in our endless mission of giving meaning to things that don’t really have a meaning? Does anything have meaning? What is the point of existence? What is the point of anything? Sorry, got a little carried away there. But I think you’d have gotten my point by now. 

Also, if there is some spirit, how did they feel about the moon landing? Random quacks walking over their surface. Was the moon landing even real? Or was it just a hoax, as assumed by so many people? Why would NASA try to scam so many people by saying they sent astronauts to the moon when they hadn’t? What was their motivation? And if it was a hoax, was Neil Armstrong living a lie for most of his life? 

The moon, of course, is always there– but one day, everything comes to an end. That day could be tomorrow, it could come in a month, in a year, in ten years, a hundred, or maybe after a million years. I only wonder, would everything be better or worse when that happens?