the Moon

Almost 50 years old and just learning how the moon works - pathetic..... I've always been curious but never quite understood the cycle "new moon" "waxing/waning".... that kind of stuff.... i mean when you look up at the moon (this same moon that all mankind looks at every night and has done so for ... hmmmm .... how long?) do you know if it's getting bigger? smaller? how fast it changes? what's a quarter moon? etc.

Well you get the idea. I went to this Virtual Reality Moon site and this site and putting the two together you can figure it out.

My question is, how did I grow up? get through grade school? get a college degree? (in Environmental Science even!?) and grow to be 49 years old? and live in the deep dark Texas hill country? and still not follow what the moon does ???!!??

...the one giant orb in the sky that has ruled the night and earth and humanity and the animals and the people for eternity.... the most primitive cave man ancestor that i ever had would have understood what he looked at every night and would've had names for each face... and would've known what to expect the next night - all his life! It was assumed knowledge.

...and i look at the moon nightly and go, "hmmm", if that, and not much else.

...society somewhere let me down... this should've been taught like in kindergarten. Are we that much removed from nature!?

Anyway.... Bruce Lee's son has a nice quote of mortality and the moon that's actually on his grave stone. He's buried next to his dad in Seattle. Here's a picture of me pondering them both (from this page.)