English translation from Italian, lunacy. So apparently I wasn’t the only one believing that this was a bad moon but is there really any such thing? Does the full moon really have the mystical power to induce lunacy? Does the state of “moonstruck” trigger erratic behavior, increase drunkenness, traffic accidents, homicides (ok I stopped short of homicide) and arrests (no bail money was needed this time)? Why else would police departments, emergency rooms and suicide hot lines add personnel to cope with the “heightened incidents”?
Believe it or not the jury is still out on the validity of lunacy, originally referring to insanity of an intermittent kind attributed to changes of the moon. There are, of course, several theories; the most widely held has to do with the effect of the full moon on water. Miami psychiatrist, Arnold Lieber, “the full moon’s supposed effects on behavior arise from its influence on water. The human body, after all, is about 80 percent water, so perhaps the moon works its mischievous magic by somehow disrupting the alignment of water molecules in the nervous system.” Not many in the scientific community are buying it, seems the gravitational effects of the moon are tiny tiny tiny. And the water that is affected by the moon is open water, and the effects are the same for the new moon, which we can’t even see.
More and more studies are not endorsing the lunacy theories of the ages. More and more studies are pointing toward….urban legend. Hollywood has helped with the legend part of it, nothing short of a full moon will do as the music rises and the scream is imminent. Please.
One of the more interesting theories was raised by Charles L. Raison, Emory University. He seemed to think that the effect may have been genuine at one time; before the advent of outdoor lighting the bright light of the full moon deprived people who were living outside of sleep. Ok, I have never lived outside but I can assure you no amount of black out blinds, drapes can prevent the full moon from seeping into my bedroom at night. This theory I can work with.
Whatever your beliefs the full moon does…something. I’m not sure what but I know like I know that the end of last week brought me to a table in a little dive bar with four other women who, unprovoked (except that they read my post last week) sat down hard and said this was a bad moon.
Each had a story of crazy customers, spouses, children and they were sticking to it. That said, I can’t think of a better way to end a full moon week than with these women. The laugher and stories just kept coming. Our only similarity is that we work in the same business, we are each very different people but together we made an otherwise difficult week manageable. I hadn’t laughed all week and here I hadn’t stopped.
One of these wonderful women caught my eye and said, you did this. You got us here. What a wonderful compliment. There was a moment just after that when I felt as if I was out of body, the background noise faded away and as I looked around the table at these women, who each had their own life rant going on, I knew (like I knew) that this week was truly done. I believe they knew it to. It’s no wonder we vow to do this each month, so no one gets hurt including each of us.