Waltzing Gibbons

01 February 2023, waxing gibbous

“The waxing gibbous phase is between a half moon and full moon. Waxing means it is getting bigger.”
– NASA

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I initially misread the description and thought it was “waltzing gibbons.”

An overactive imagination.

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Why do I keep taking photos of the moon? And I’m not alone either.

There are literally billions of moon photos on the internet — I googled “moon pictures” and there were 2.76 billion results in 0.48 second. Maybe a million more is added everyday.

I don’t actually go out intentionally seeking to photograph the moon, except on rare occasions like full eclipses and the like.

I stepped out to my front yard and happened to look up. The “waltzing gibbons” was shining so brightly in the cloudless sky and it would take no more than a couple of minutes to grab a few shots.

I can imagine when homo sapiens was living in caves that the moon would present a spectacular sight on many nights. Maybe that’s how songs and legends were born.

In today’s world, where LED lights and computer screens light up everything outside and inside, the moon is hardly an attraction.

And like the moon, each person is hardly a blip in the world of physical and virtual realities, just one among billions.

Maybe people take photos of the moon not to capture it, but to leave one’s stamp on this moment in time. Some kind of graffiti, like spraying “Kilroy was here” on the moon’s surface. After all, the moon would probably outlast us all.

Except it’s the moon that can leave its mark on us, if we take just a moment to look up occasionally, and watch the waltzing gibbons.