Despite the moon's eclipse of the sun, our human spirit shined through

SEYMOUR, Ind. (WDRB) -- When the moon stole the show from the sun, eclipsing the light in the sky, there was an overwhelming human connection that happened below.

There were cheers and tears. Smiles and screams.

"It's getting dark now, daddy!" a girl said to her dad with excitement. "Wow," she added.

From six years old to 60 years old, the reaction to the "Great American Eclipse" was generally the same for everyone. Pure awe.

"It will disappear... yay!" an elderly woman screamed as she leaned back in her chair to look up.

On display Monday was not only a once-in-a-lifetime total solar eclipse, but also the ethos of the human spirit. It brought together crowds of strangers to sit in empty fields together. To laugh together. To cry together.

"It's just beautiful," said Penny Christenson, who drove to Indiana from Wisconsin. "It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen."

"It makes you feel so, so small, huh?" another man said.

Totality lasted three minutes and some change. The connections on the ground will remain for a lifetime.

"Everything seemed so vivid, like a dream," one woman thought out loud, as totality ended.

There is no perfect way to experience a once-in-a-lifetime moment. No guide book on what to do or how to feel. Those responses are embedded in our DNA. They - metaphorically - bring us back down to earth.

"It's good to just stop and take a moment and just reflect on everything, and kind of just be here with friends and family," said Bobby Bailey, from Louisville.

Some burst with excitement when totality darkened the skies - like when WDRB Chief Meteorologist Marc Weinberg screamed that science was in the air - and others kept to themselves in a moment of reflection and gratitude.

All of these people, however, seemed to share in astonishment and realization that there is something far bigger than all of us.

There was a moment of clarity in totality, when phones went down and eyes looked up. A shared understanding that, even for just three minutes, we were connected in commonality.

It's been said that there is no way to describe the feeling of witnessing a total solar eclipse, and that point still stands. But the beauty stretches beyond the sky.

The true beauty is found in the hearts and minds of strangers who shared something special together.

"It's not by chance," one eclipse viewer said after the sun reassumed its place. "It is not by chance."

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