Why the Moon is Always Sad

Four-year-old Sarah looked out the window and watched the rain fall over the moon.

“Rae, why’s the moon crying?” she asked.

“The moon isn’t crying, silly, it’s just the rain,” her older sister Rachel replied, not looking up from her homework.

“No, it’s not! Come and look!” Rachel sighed and got up from her homework, walking over to the window where her sister lay. She looked out the window and saw that it did look like the moon was crying. For the first time she could see the “man in the moon,” and the rain seemed to be coming from “his” eyes.

“I don’t know, Squirt. Maybe,” she stopped to think about it.

“The moon is always sad, and tonight it’s crying. Why?” Sarah asked, impatiently waiting for an answer.

Just then a news report came on about more people being killed in Iraq. A thought came to Rachel.

“Come sit on my lap by the fire and I’ll tell you a story,” she said, moving closer to the fireplace. Sarah obediently followed.

“Is the story about why the moon’s so sad all the time?”

“Hush and listen to the story.

“Once, a long time ago, the moon wasn’t sad. People would look up and say things like, ‘Look at Artemis, she seems so glad tonight!”

“Who’s Artemis?” Sarah interrupted.

“Artemis, according to Greek mythology,” said Rachel, sounding like her history teacher, “was the goddess of the hunt, her symbol was the moon.”

“Oh. But it’s the man in the moon, not the girl in the moon!”

“Hush up and listen, Sarah, or I won’t finish the story!” Sarah put her lower lip in a pout, but was quiet.

“Okay. So Artemis was able to look down on everyone, and see how they were treating each other. When the treated each other badly, she would frown down on them from the skies, in the form of a face. When the people saw that, they started being nice to each other again. But now Artemis is always sad. There are people fighting everywhere; in the homes; in the schools, in hundreds of different places. People are killing each other for no reason.” She stopped to control her emotions.

“The reason she’s crying tonight is some of her children died, far away from their families, fighting for other’s freedom. She always wants to cry, but sometimes she can’t. After she cries, she doesn’t have anymore tears for a long time.”

“So Artemis is crying tonight?” Sarah asked, looking up at her older sister.

“Yes. I hope that someday we’ll be able to see Artemis smile again.”

“I hope the moon is happy too, Rae,” she said, giving her sister a big hug.

Outside, far up in the heavens, the moon was smiling.

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