There had been quite a bit of hype
over the “supermoon” of November 13 and 14—the brightest moon in 68 years. This
was going to be a full moon on steroids. A photographer’s dream.
Well, even though I had it on my
calendar, I crawled into bed and settled down with my book. My phone buzzed,
and I looked at it. Reminder: Supermoon.
I jumped out of bed and wandered
out onto the deck to take a few shots of the moon. Yes, it was bright and
silvery. I took some photos, made a few camera adjustments, took some more and
went back to bed.
The next morning started early for me. As
I walked past my bedroom window, I saw a bright moon shining in the west. Before
I’d had my first cup of coffee, I put on my boots and wandered out into the
field to take photos of the moon. The sun was rising in the east and the play
of light on the russet fall leaves made a different kind of moon photo than I’d
taken at the midnight hour.
Whew. Supermoon over, I could go
back to regular sunset photos.
That night, I had line dancing class.
I pulled out of the garage and saw a bright orange-yellow moon peeping over the
horizon. I ran back inside to grab my camera. I braced my arms on the car door
and took a few shots.
Well,
supermoon was supposed to be over, so that’s just a bad moon arising, I
thought to myself. I knew the full moon had been the previous night, but the
difference was subtle. I couldn’t help but think about the changes in Jim’s
behavior during the full moon.
I know, I know, some people believe
that’s just an old wives’ tale. In this case, I’d have to count myself as an
old wife, because I saw it firsthand.
Most scientists believe the moon only
affects open liquid, like the ocean, and not enclosed liquid such as in the
human brain. But, you know if you dig deep enough, you can prove just about
anything with Google and, lo and behold, I found a scientific study on the moon’s
effect on a person with Alzheimer’s.
Alan M. Beck (sorry, no letters
after his name), Purdue University, conducted a longitudinal study of the moon’s
effect on persons with Alzheimer’s. His sought to “objectively examine the lunar influence on the frequency, duration, and
intensity of behaviors in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.”
The behaviors he studied were
wandering, anxiety, physical aggression, and verbal confrontation. His
conclusion—wait for it—aligned with mine. The study showed that people with
Alzheimer’s disease not only exhibited more behaviors during the full moon—they
exhibited significantly more. I’m
certain that was not new information for nursing home workers.
After my impromptu photo shoot, I
headed to the Celebration Center for my line dancing class, the moon was in
full view most of the time. I kept thinking about “Bad Moon Rising” by Credence
Clearwater Revival. I hadn’t heard that song in years. It always made me think
of that scene in the Twilight Zone movie
where the passenger in the car asks the driver, “You want to see something really
scary?” Yep. Full moons, or almost full moons, can be bad moons.
I pushed all thoughts of bad moons
to the back of my mind and turned on the happy feet for line dancing. After
about fifty minutes, we formed a circle to do a dance called “around the world.”
Our leader, Ruth, ran us through the steps so that we went in the right
direction at the right time and didn’t knock each other down. She cued up the
music and the sounds of “Bad Moon Rising” filled the room.
As we danced around the full-moon
shaped circle, we laughed at how fast we were moving. Was it a coincidence that
we danced to that song for the first time on the night I saw a bad moon
arising? Of course, it was! Wasn’t it? Just
to be safe, I’m not going out anymore tonight.
Copyright © November 2016 by L.S.
Fisher
http://earlyonset.blogspot.com
