Tonight, we'll be under the last "black moon" until July 2019. The opposite of a blue moon, and aptly named, a black moon is what we call the second new moon of the month. No light in the sky but the stars and the occasional passing satellite. I couldn't help but romanticize over what this means for us.
Everyone knows the tides a blue moon brings.
Once in a blue moon, you receive an unexpected hello from an almost-forgotten lover, a phone call from your grown up daughter, the urge to dust off your clarinet from high school band days and happily fumble through a tune. I get a rare craving for bitter coffee even though I usually have to stir in three or four spoons of sugar just to avoid wincing. Sugar is false; it masks the truth. Once in a blue moon, I wince and smile. How good to be alive.
It seems two full moons in a month is more than a human can handle, so the extra one must be painted blue, the color of rarity and unnatural design. There are few blue things in the natural world. Strange and small flowers, one fruit, tiny songbirds, and just a single stripe of seven in a rainbow. Blue is the color of the word seldom. The taste of oblivious longing fulfilled.
Blue moon also has a dark sibling. Black moon, the second new moon in a single month. An absence of our usual evening light and the opposite of extra illumination upon our lives.
What does she demand of us, I wonder. I’ve never heard that once in black moon you smoke a cigar on the roof or let yourself drive home even after having three glasses of wine. So what strange behavior should I perform? Do I finally write a good song? Instead of pretending that I want a hug, do I give a kiss? Do I look at myself in the mirror with adoration?
The stars and the forest and the mountains must be afraid of all the extra darkness. I would be, if I was a star, and not a human in control of her own destiny. Blue or black, the only thing the color of the moon determines is how much sugar I put in my coffee and whether or not I can see my lover’s face when the lights are off and the window is open.
We fall upon rare habits during a blue moon because we can see each other more clearly, if only for one extra night. We see our own faces, too. On the night of a black moon, there is only darkness, and no need to wait for a blue moon to be my hidden self.
So what shall I do?