Total Eclipse of the Heart

Total Eclipse of the Heart
Revisited

I had intended to write an article about the total solar eclipse. However, the three essays about repeating history, Beethoven, and Trump were more important. Therefore, today’s essay is about the eclipses.

Thanks to NASA, this video shows the path of the 2024 total solar eclipse from Texas to Maine.

As I started the essay about the solar eclipse in Crown Point, IN, which was 75% of a total eclipse, for some reason, the song, Total Eclipse of the Heart, started bouncing around in my head. In the early 80s, Bonnie Tyler made that song a hit in Europe and America. Aside from enjoying the song, I was fascinated by the fact that she was on board a cruise ship in the Caribbean during the August 2017 solar eclipse.

Tyler’s song is about two lovers in a problematic relationship. Trust me. I know the feeling of being in a relationship and not going in the right direction. I have been in relationships that I knew early on that it would go nowhere, but I didn’t have the guts to bail out. I merely tried to continue on and failed. This is how Tyler described it.

Once upon a time I was falling in love
But now I’m only falling apart
There’s nothing I can do
A total eclipse of the heart

I’ve been there and done that. However, this essay is not about my romantic failures. It deals with the Donald the Dumb and his dating habits. Even Trump, the very stable genius, has no idea how many women he dated simultaneously. He faces two of them in his hush money trial in New York. As the song goes, it’s a Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Together we can take it to the end of the line
Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time (all of the time)

I don’t know what to do
I’m always in the dark
Living in a powder keg and giving off sparks

Tyler’s song repeats the reframe two dozen times, “Turn around.” Unless someone turns around and behaves differently, their love affair will result in a powder keg explosion.

Trump never turned around in his relationships with women. However, that doesn’t affect our nation. What does affect all of us is the relationship that Trump has with his MAGA base. In a very real sense, they are dating. Either Trump needs to turn around, or his MAGA followers in Congress do so. It is doubtful Trump will or even can, regardless of his mantra that he is a very stable genius. Unless some members of Congress turn around and leave their love affair with Donald the Dumb, there could be a total eclipse of the government, not just a partial one.