A Full Moon of Memories

After running some quick errands, I was headed back to my car in an unusually empty Lake Success Shopping Center parking lot. The weather in New York the past few days has been spring-like, a hopeful reminder that I can soon play tennis outdoors once again. As part of my rather extensive fitness routine, I park my car the longest distance from my destination store. Tonight was a great night to park inconveniently. The full moon of February 9th was begging for attention.

Talk about eye candy. As I walked the two minutes to my car, I also walked towards the moon. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. Upon reaching my car, I put my stuff inside, zipped up my jacket, and leaned against the 100year-old silver Honda CRV that accompanied me on this short trip.

I couldn't help but remember some of the times I had been so caught up in the moon. The late-night plane trips when the moon took a seat right next to me. The moonlit ultimate Frisbee at 2 a.m. with my brothers on the MSA spring retreat. The late-night long drives with my family when I gazed up from the back seat thinking I could stay awake longer than the moon, only to fall asleep because there's no place quite like the backseat on a long drive for a good nap. Or the drive around New York City with friends on prom night when we actually did outlast the moon.

The time I really liked a girl and hoped she was watching the same moon, only to realize that it wasn't yet nighttime where she was. It still made me wonder about how the Arabic words for "sun" (shams) and "moon" (qamar) are feminine and masculine respectively, which is meant to indicate that any good in us men is only a reflection of the women in our lives.

I think of the late night Ramadan prayers in Mecca and Medina. The late night battles in a packed Arthur Ashe stadium, the Mecca of tennis. The Village A rooftops at Georgetown overlooking the moonlit Potomac River after the drunken revelry has subsided. And Tom Hanks sizing up the moon with his thumb in Apollo 13.

You can't help but think when staring at a beautiful sight like tonight's full moon that there actually is a God. Not because of its breathtaking beauty, but because of how it makes you feel at once small and large, powerless and empowered.

It was then that I noticed a couple in the parking lot who also refused to go home. And then another family about a hundred feet behind me who could wait a little longer to go home and run their household. I noticed that everyone who was headed to their cars paused for at least a minute or two to take in the sight. The scene reminded me of an drive-in movie theater. It was also then that I realized I had been standing in the lot for twenty minutes and had half a lesson plan patiently waiting for me on my desk.

I couldn't help but envy my car as I drove home: it will stay out tonight, watching the moon as it lights the sky, long after I fall asleep.

By Abed Z. Bhuyan  |  February 9, 2009; 9:16 PM ET  | Category:  Abedology Save & Share:                 
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