On Tuesday night three things—a supermoon, a harvest moon, and a partial eclipse—all took place in one celestial body. I’m not a selenologist. Yes, it’s a thing! The name is based on an Ancient Greek myth that the Moon goddess, Selene, drove a chariot pulling the moon across the sky every night. Awesome job for a night owl, which I am not and so I didn’t see the eclipse because it happened at 10:44 Eastern and that’s a good bit after I’m asleep driving my own little dream chariot through slumberland. Yet, while I was awake, every time I passed the northern windows in our house, that moon was winking fat, sassy, and majestic.

Being someone who’s mostly (OK, always) lived in populated areas, I’ve never had a clear sky to see the full picture of stars and what-have-you. Now, with no ambient light except the one on our porch, I can see things. I may start getting curious about constellations. I do have more of a sense of both being little under a big sky and also aware that this moon is the same one stared at the world over. It’s a good reminder for me since lately, during this silly season of politics, I’ve noticed how I can become easily overwhelmed, frustrated, sad, and just generally agitated at a swathe of people existing under that big moon.

Now that I work at AARP, copy editing all the things that go online and in the magazine, along with the videos, bulletins, etc., I get a fair amount of insight into what’s important and top-of-mind for the over-50 among us. It’s also wild that that includes me: over-50 for real, even though as most anyone of any age will say, they don’t even know what it means to feel like you’re a certain amount of numbers on this earth. Back in my music days, I was almost always the oldest in the room given I came late to figuring out the what&where of my life. I was older usually by a year or five but as far as I knew, it didn’t make a difference in what I said, did, or wrote. It wasn’t as if I was trying to fit in somewhere I shouldn’t have been (see Amy Sedaris in Strangers With Candy) or had an aim to corrupt the youth.

In the last decade though, I’ve absolutely noticed basic differences around how my age situates me in the world. The first stop being my closet. Understanding that some of the looks I’d completely loved and made my own were just not workable anymore—I’m looking at you short skirts with knee-socks and motorcycle boots; oh, and hey tank-tops, maybe you’re not my favorite clothing choice anymore either. Beyond my closet, I’ve also been reminded of ideological positions that have not aligned altogether with my peers. Working where I do, one of the most jarring moments, besides seeing people who I double-take for having aged (Jon Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Brat Pack-ers), is understanding how folx across the country think about the world we live in. And wowza, I’m always muttering, Hey fellow oldsters, what is up? Every time we publish a poll about how Trump is ahead among 50-plus voters nationally, I have to get up and pace around while saying (maybe yelling) “Polls are unreliable,” attempting to understand how there are people out there falling for this shuckster-shyster-felon with no plan beyond chaos, domination, authoritarian shenanigans (don’t even start on tariffs. Either a) he doesn’t understand how they work and/or b) he’s counting on his followers to not understand how they work. A great and clear clip here about how they’ll very much hurt the income of Americans).

Ultimately, though, I don’t need to understand how the minds of people who have been standing under this same moon for the same amount of time as I have view the world. When faced with a picture of our current America, they see something completely different than I do. I see the great possibility of a chariot pulled by a fierce woman doing a lot of work to keep the moon (metaphor for all sorts of stability or at least not self-induced chaos) coming and going steadily. They see … who the hell knows? But regardless, the sense of how goddamned important and consequential the decision on November 5 is for all of us connected in these 50 states, not only for how long we can exist into the future to see the moon and the sun rise and fall, but also how every person of all backgrounds, races, proclivities, and beyond stand underneath and look up at that sky, well … it’s consequential. It did make me happy that my fellow oldster lady people voiced this (based on a poll that went up at work Friday): “Women voters 50-plus support Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris over Republican former President Donald Trump by a 12-percentage-point margin, largely because of how these voters rate the candidates on pocketbook and retirement issues, an exclusive AARP poll released Friday found.” Yes, it’s a poll. But still. Now let’s get in our chariots and bring the woman qualified for the job across the November threshold for a win. That’s an eclipse I’d stay up for!