I see the moon and the moon sees me...

I can't see the man in the moon. I never have been able to see him. Sometimes, if I squint my eyes, I think I can but the harder I look, the more I see the rabbit in the moon. Now, I always assumed that it must be because I grew up in a country that has a rabbit in the moon, not a man. And, when I looked it up, sure enough, the rabbit in the moon is most common in East Asian folklore. In China, the rabbit is the companion to Chang'e, making the elixir of life for her. The story I was always told, which is common in Japan and Korea, is that the rabbit is pounding mochi.

Now, here's the interesting thing. The rabbit also shows up, all the way on the other side of the Pacific, in Aztec mythology. Tecciztecatl, the Aztex lunar deity, could have been the sun god, but was afraid of the sun's fire. He refused and, in the form of a rabbit, was thrown into the moon. How's that for a punishment?

Personally, I find the rabbit in the moon much more interesting than the man in the moon, so I'm not terribly disappointed to see the rabbit. And, it provides a link to childhood, one of the few I can revisit easily and often. Well, as often as the Northwest sky allows.