The eclipse of 2017 has nothing to do with politics -- hooray!

The moon is about to come between the Earth and the sun.

For Americans, the line of shadow will travel from the Northwest United States to Charleston, South Carolina over about three hours Monday. Even those who don’t get to see the total eclipse will see something quite remarkable – a “crescent sun.”

Perhaps best of all, the eclipse has nothing at all to do with politics. Even though it’s possible they believe it, the movement of the heavenly bodies remains independent of Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump or any other elected official, pundit or media outlet.

That’s why the eclipse of the sun is a good reminder that not everything centers on the public figures or media voices who seem to want to remind us daily that they are really the biggest part of our lives. The sun, the moon and all of nature don’t care who said what or when, or who got elected.

The daily call to indignation that someone on the left did this or that someone on the right did that (these days it’s always President Trump, of course) makes no difference at all to the solar system. That’s worth remembering when the shadow of the moon passes over your town.

Eclipses once caused panic with the fear that the world was coming to an end. These days that same kind of mass panic is deliberately induced as a way to draw eyeballs to newspapers, websites and TV screens, and to win elections. Yes, the sun still has the potential to return us to the 1700’s with a now predicted coronal mass ejection strong enough to melt our electrical grid.

The only connection, however, to politicians and media figures is that almost none of them are willing to take steps or even advocate for “hardening” the electrical grid before a catastrophe happens.

Otherwise, the ambitions of politicians, the words that have so many choosing sides, and the journalism that has almost devolved into cries to “bring out your dead” have nothing at all to do with the orbits of the planets and moons and the multibillion-year show by the sun.

Enjoy that fact when the eclipse darkens the day for a few magical moments where you live. Enjoy the truth that a lot of other American are looking up (with their solar eclipse glasses, of course) just as you are and without regard to party, religion, race or even favorite sports teams. And enjoy the fact that no politician or media voice can claim credit or assign blame for the solar eclipse of 2017.