I’m looking to maximize Totality Experiences in my life, and part of my job as an educator is to convince my students to make the effort with me.
5 hours driving each way.
Camping overnight.
Helping oversee ten young people ages 10-17.
Canceling rehearsal.
4 minutes of totality.
Worth it.
The 2024 eclipse totality lived up to the hype. It wasn’t a grand spectacle; it was a deeply calm, slow, remarkable experience to have with family and friends. Seeing it was utterly unlike reading about it or seeing the pictures or videos. (Much like Michalangelo’s David or Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia – until you see it face to face, you don’t understand it.)
Call them Totality Experiences. It’s worth the effort to have these singular experiences, and in my experience they all require effort.
It’s the same making a remarkable piece of music come to life with your ensemble, or laying down the perfect ensemble tracks, or writing a piece of music that precisely reflects what you hear, or singing into a remarkable space like St. Peter’s Basilica.
Effort? Yes. Worth it? Definitely.