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You owe it to yourself to experience a total solar eclipse

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    Before I get to bulk
    of what I have to say,
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    I feel compelled just to mention
    a couple of things about myself.
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    I am not some mystical,
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    spiritual sort of person.
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    I'm a science writer.
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    I studied physics in college.
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    I used to be a science
    correspondent for NPR.
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    OK, that said:
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    in the course of working
    on a story for NPR,
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    I got some advice from an astronomer
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    that challenged my outlook,
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    and frankly, changed my life.
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    You see, the story was about an eclipse,
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    a partial solar eclipse
    that was set to cross the country
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    in May of 1994.
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    And the astronomer -- I interviewed him,
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    and he explained what was going to happen
    and how to view it,
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    but he emphasized that, as interesting
    as a partial solar eclipse is,
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    a much rarer total solar eclipse
    is completely different.
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    In a total eclipse,
    for all of two or three minutes,
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    the moon completely blocks
    the face of the sun,
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    creating what he described
    as the most awe-inspiring spectacle
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    in all of nature.
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    And so the advice he gave me was this:
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    "Before you die," he said,
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    "you owe it to yourself
    to experience a total solar eclipse."
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    Well honestly,
    I felt a little uncomfortable
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    hearing that from someone
    I didn't know very well;
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    it felt sort of intimate.
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    But it got my attention,
    and so I did some research.
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    Now the thing about total eclipses is,
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    if you wait for one to come to you,
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    you're going to be waiting a long time.
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    Any given point on earth
    experiences a total eclipse
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    about once every 400 years.
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    But if you're willing to travel,
    you don't have to wait that long.
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    And so I learned
    that a few years later, in 1998,
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    a total eclipse was going
    to cross the Caribbean.
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    Now, a total eclipse is visible
    only along a narrow path,
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    about a hundred miles wide,
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    and that's where the moon's shadow falls.
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    It's called the "path of totality."
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    And in February 1998,
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    the path of totality
    was going to cross Aruba.
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    So I talked to my husband,
    and we thought: February? Aruba?
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    Sounded like a good idea anyway.
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    (Laughter)
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    So we headed south,
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    to enjoy the sun
    and to see what would happen
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    when the sun briefly went away.
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    Well, the day of the eclipse
    found us and many other people
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    out behind the Hyatt Regency,
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    on the beach,
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    waiting for the show to begin.
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    And we wore eclipse glasses
    with cardboard frames
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    and really dark lenses that enabled us
    to look at the sun safely.
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    A total eclipse begins
    as a partial eclipse,
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    as the moon very slowly makes its way
    in front of the sun.
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    So first it looked the sun
    had a little notch in its edge,
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    and then that notch grew
    larger and larger,
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    turning the sun into a crescent.
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    And it was all very interesting,
    but I wouldn't say it was spectacular.
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    I mean, the day remained bright.
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    If I hadn't known
    what was going on overhead,
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    I wouldn't have noticed anything unusual.
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    Well, about 10 minutes before
    the total solar eclipse was set to begin,
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    weird things started to happen.
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    A cool wind kicked up.
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    Daylight looked odd,
    and shadows became very strange;
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    they looked bizarrely sharp,
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    as if someone had turned up
    the contrast knob on the TV.
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    Then I looked offshore,
    and I noticed running lights on boats,
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    so clearly it was getting dark,
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    although I hadn't realized it.
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    Well soon, it was obvious
    it was getting dark.
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    It felt like my eyesight was failing.
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    And then all of a sudden,
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    the lights went out.
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    Well, at that,
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    a cheer erupted from the beach,
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    and I took off my eclipse glasses,
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    because at this point
    during the total eclipse,
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    it was safe to look at the sun
    with the naked eye.
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    And I glanced upward,
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    and I was just dumbstruck.
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    Now, consider that, at this point,
    I was in my mid-30s.
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    I had lived on earth long enough
    to know what the sky looks like.
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    I mean --
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    (Laughter)
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    I'd seen blue skies and grey skies
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    and starry skies and angry skies
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    and pink skies at sunrise.
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    But here was a sky I had never seen.
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    First, there were the colors.
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    Up above, it was a deep purple-grey,
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    like twilight.
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    But on the horizon it was orange,
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    like sunset,
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    360 degrees.
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    And up above, in the twilight,
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    bright stars and planets had come out.
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    So there was Jupiter
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    and there was Mercury
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    and there was Venus.
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    They were all in a line.
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    And there, along this line,
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    was this thing,
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    this glorious, bewildering thing.
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    It looked like a wreath
    woven from silvery thread,
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    and it just hung out there
    in space, shimmering.
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    That was the sun's outer atmosphere,
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    the solar corona.
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    And pictures just don't do it justice.
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    It's not just a ring or halo
    around the sun;
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    it's finely textured,
    like it's made out of strands of silk.
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    And although it looked
    nothing like our sun,
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    of course, I knew that's what it was.
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    So there was the sun,
    and there were the planets,
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    and I could see how the planets
    revolve around the sun.
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    It's like I had left our solar system
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    and was standing on some alien world,
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    looking back at creation.
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    And for the first time in my life,
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    I just felt viscerally connected
    to the universe
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    in all of its immensity.
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    Time stopped,
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    or it just kind of felt nonexistent,
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    and what I beheld with my eyes --
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    I didn't just see it,
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    it felt like a vision.
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    And I stood there in this nirvana
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    for all of 174 seconds --
    less than three minutes --
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    when all of a sudden, it was over.
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    The sun burst out,
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    the blue sky returned,
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    the stars and the planets
    and the corona were gone.
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    The world returned to normal.
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    But I had changed.
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    And that's how I became an umbraphile --
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    an eclipse chaser.
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    (Laughter)
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    So, this is how I spend my time
    and hard-earned money.
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    Every couple of years, I head off
    to wherever the moon's shadow will fall
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    to experience another couple minutes
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    of cosmic bliss,
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    and to share the experience with others:
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    with friends in Australia,
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    with an entire city in Germany.
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    In 1999, in Munich,
    I joined hundreds of thousands
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    who filled the streets and the rooftops
    and cheered in unison
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    as the solar corona emerged.
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    And over time, I've become something else:
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    an eclipse evangelist.
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    I see it as my job
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    to pay forward the advice
    that I received all those years ago.
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    And so let me tell you:
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    before you die,
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    you owe it to yourself
    to experience a total solar eclipse.
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    It is the ultimate experience of awe.
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    Now, that word, "awesome,"
    has grown so overused
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    that it's lost its original meaning.
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    True awe, a sense of wonder
    and insignificance
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    in the face of something
    enormous and grand,
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    is rare in our lives.
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    But when you experience it, it's powerful.
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    Awe dissolves the ego.
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    It makes us feel connected.
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    Indeed, it promotes
    empathy and generosity.
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    Well, there is nothing truly more awesome
    than a total solar eclipse.
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    Unfortunately, few Americans
    have seen one,
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    because it's been 38 years
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    since one last touched
    the continental United States
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    and 99 years since one last crossed
    the breadth of the nation.
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    But that is about to change.
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    Over the next 35 years,
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    five total solar eclipses will visit
    the continental United States,
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    and three of them
    will be especially grand.
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    Six weeks from now, on August 21, 2017 --
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    (Applause)
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    the moon's shadow will race
    from Oregon to South Carolina.
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    April 8, 2024, the moon's shadow
    heads north from Texas to Maine.
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    In 2045, on August 12,
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    the path cuts from California to Florida.
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    I say:
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    What if we made these holidays?
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    What if we --
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    (Laughter)
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    (Applause)
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    What if we all stood together,
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    as many people as possible,
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    in the shadow of the moon?
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    Just maybe, this shared experience of awe
    would help heal our divisions,
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    get us to treat each other
    just a bit more humanely.
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    Now, admittedly, some folks consider
    my evangelizing a little out there;
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    my obsession, eccentric.
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    I mean, why focus so much attention
    on something so brief?
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    Why cross the globe --
    or state lines, for that matter --
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    for something that lasts three minutes?
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    As I said:
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    I am not a spiritual person.
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    I don't believe in God.
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    I wish I did.
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    But when I think of my own mortality --
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    and I do, a lot --
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    when I think of everyone I have lost,
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    my mother in particular,
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    what soothes me
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    is that moment of awe I had in Aruba.
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    I picture myself on that beach,
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    looking at that sky,
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    and I remember how I felt.
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    My existence may be temporary,
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    but that's OK because, my gosh,
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    look at what I'm a part of.
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    And so this is a lesson I've learned,
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    and it's one that applies
    to life in general:
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    duration of experience
    does not equal impact.
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    One weekend, one conversation --
    hell, one glance --
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    can change everything.
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    Cherish those moments
    of deep connection with other people,
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    with the natural world,
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    and make them a priority.
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    Yes, I chase eclipses.
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    You might chase something else.
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    But it's not about the 174 seconds.
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    It's about how they change
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    the years that come after.
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    Thank you.
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    (Applause)
Title:
You owe it to yourself to experience a total solar eclipse
Speaker:
David Baron
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
12:16

English subtitles

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