Eclipse hoopla is a bit much
Kaity Holtman
In case you’ve been hiding under a rock this year, there is a total eclipse scheduled to make its path across Missouri next Monday, August 21. While Maryville is not in the total eclipse path, people within city limits will still experience darkness and a partial eclipse.
The path is said to cover much of southern Nodaway County. The supposedly precise line will go right through our new land, with our house and the southern half in the totality, but the northern half not.
I’ll be interested to see if it’s really that accurate, but anyway …
The point of me writing about the total eclipse is this: I’m looking forward to enjoying it, but I’m not buying into all the excitement about it.
(I may be writing in two weeks telling you all I was wrong. We’ll see)
While I know this will likely be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I’m a little annoyed by all the craze.
St. Joseph is said to have the longest time along the path to view the eclipse in totality, so there are people traveling from all over the world to see it in St. Joe.
The city is expecting literally hundreds of thousands of people to descend upon St. Joe. Hotels are requiring multiple night stays to purchase a room. People are renting out houses or bedrooms in their houses for hundreds, even thousands of dollars for one or multiple nights.
People are selling parking spot reservations.
Traffic is expected to be gridlocked.
Businesses are shutting down for the entire day or at least during the eclipse.
Extra security is being called in to cover crime in the city.
Emergency services are expected to be set up all over the city.
Cell phone service is expected to be hard to come by because of the over use of towers and data.
The Missouri Department of Transportation is having to tell people not to pull over along the interstate just to watch the eclipse so that they don’t cause traffic accidents.
Assuming the craze is what they are expecting it to be … are you kidding me!?
People are paying thousands of dollars for two minutes (in the most perfect spot) of total eclipse.
Now from a tourism standpoint, I totally get raking in all those tax dollars from visitors to the communities. I know Maryville’s hotels are full, people will fill up their vehicles at our gas stations and eat in our restaurants before and after the big event. I am glad we can capitalize on some of those dollars.
St. Joe has its biggest festival of the year this weekend and is extending it an extra day to give people something to do and a place to spend more money.
I do get it from the tourism standpoint, and even from a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity standpoint.
And there are multiple religions that view the eclipse as a big deal, and I’ve heard that it will “move you to tears.”
But there is so much talk about all of the money-making and gridlock traffic, not the actual eclipse, but about the craze of it all, that it’s lost its appeal to me.
I think this must be how some people view Christmas. I tend to ignore all the commercialization that comes along with Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, I like to buy and give gifts. But I don’t let it to overtake my belief that the birth of Jesus is the true reason for the season.
But a lot of people get so upset about the commercialization of Christmas, by businesses profiting off of the Christian holiday, that they can’t even focus on the true reason.
I get it now, comparing it to the eclipse.
I’m having a hard time focusing on what a beautiful moment it could be, because of all of the craze that has been built up around it.
I hope everyone stays safe, or that criminals or terrorists don’t take the opportunity to do terrible things. I hope these communities benefit from the tourism opportunities and don’t spend days cleaning up trash.
But I also hope that people remember that the whole point is to experience this unique opportunity and to maybe even take a moment to realize what an incredible universe God has created for us to be a part of.
Enjoy it. Maybe even have a spiritual moment.
But don’t let all the craze overtake the experience.
Kaity Holtman is the Agriculture Editor for the Maryville Daily Forum.
