String Quartet No. 1 'A Penumbral Eclipse'

A few years ago, I observed a total lunar eclipse with a few friends. The event was to be centered around the actual one hour or so period where the moon was being entirely eclipsed. For a few hours before however, the process began as the moon entered the Earth’s penumbra, a slightly less noticeable shadow. Every once and a while, we would look up at the moon and say to each other “Not yet,” meaning that the total eclipse has not yet occurred. For me, this brought up some thoughts about the way people tend to think in black and white terms, and often overlook the grey area that makes up the majority of our experiences. We have been conditioned to look for grand, climactic high points in our lives, as well as to lament the tragic ones. What we often miss are the millions of moments that fall in between the two; that make up the vast majority of our experiences. These experiences always seem to contain this duality of light and dark; good and evil; happy and sad, in some form. Each move