When I hear the words “blue moon” I’m reminded of a song from the ancient days with this line: “Blue moon, you saw me standing alone.” Or I’m reminded of getting a double-dipped ice-cream cone proudly glowing a bright blue color. I never think of an astronomical event.
Friday is the night. The internet is tingling about the rare blue moon scheduled to grace the skies tonight. This is the night where a month has a second full moon. And it is a rare event; occurring only once every three years.
You should make an effort to be outside to see this event. And there is only one reason you should make the effort. Go and see for yourself if the moon is blue. You would expect a blue moon to be, uh, blue. But it isn’t. It is a full moon which happens to be the second one during a calendar month. But it isn’t blue. Seriously. No matter the headlines say. It isn’t blue.
Gazing into the sky at the “blue” moon reminds us of a significant lesson. SAYING something is true does not MAKE it true. (You have no idea how good it felt to type those words!)
With the muscle of social media growing by the hour we need to remember saying something is true doesn’t make it true.
- I’m tired of people who make judgments on an article by only reading the headline.
- I’m tired of people who pass along worn out “dangers” as truth which long ago proved to be false. Trust me. McDonald’s is NOT grinding up worms into their hamburger patties and Proctor and Gamble does not have a hidden satanic message embedded in their logo.
- I’m tired of people who post political innuendos as truth to prove how evil the other political party is.
- I’m tired of people telling me the cutesy little saying they posted is true and if I REALLY love Jesus I will share.
Instead of passing along innuendo, half truths, and false facts we should go out and look into the sky ourselves. Is the moon really blue?
Take time to investigate the facts for yourself. It is so easy, and tempting, to read something you agree with and then pass it along to others. But agreeing with it doesn’t mean it is truth. We need to stop it. Stop it now.
As it turns out, once in a blue moon, there really is a blue moon. There are times when the atmospheric conditions are just right and a full moon appears as a blue tint. The only way to know is go and look for yourself.
And once in a while the things flying around the internet and social media are true. But you need to check it out for yourself. Don’t take anyone’s word for it. Go and take a look yourself.