Pulse October 2017 | Page 8

“It looked as though we had all gathered on hilltops to pray for the world on its last day.” — Annie dillard, Total Eclipse Eclipses preoccupied ancient scholars from the Greeks and Romans to the Chinese and Assyrians. They’ve signified different things in different eras: foreboding, good fortune, change. Across cultures, though, an eclipse has almost always been filled with meaning—a sight so vivid and unsettling that it must mean something important. Perhaps that’s still true. The total solar eclipse that cascaded across much of the U.S. in August left me with a feeling of excitement for what’s on the horizon. Even though I wasn’t in the path of complete totality, I could still sense the change in the air and the exhilaration that this celestial event promised. On one hand, it was simply an awesome show. As the moon passed in front of the sun, day became night, the stars came out, temperatures dropped, and the animals didn’t know what to do (those crickets were freaking out, y’all). For an instant, the whole mad clockwork of the universe revealed itself, and it was pretty cool. But on the other hand, maybe something worldlier was at work, too. If you turn on the news, you’re constantly met with rage and resentment and a passionate intensity that has become, frankly, exhausting. But, on August 21, millions of people gathered across the country—from Oregon to South Carolina—to set aside their political, religious and economic differences for two minutes and join in a commonality they didn’t know they had. I heard stories of strangers sharing glasses on the streets of New York City and of tens of thousands in downtown Nashville cheering in unison at the exact moment of totality. It’s pretty incredible that a two-minute event can bring us all together in joy and optimism. As October presents itself, I can’t help but apply that feeling of reassurance and optimism to the ISPA Conference & Expo. The imminent gathering of thousands of spa professionals who are at once both incredibly diverse and forcefully united under a common goal of igniting the spa industry, feels somewhat like an eclipse: the change on the horizon, the impact of a gathering of such magnitude and the sheer joy that only an event like Conference can conjure. —KELLy HEItz, EdItor the ISPA team taking a break from Conference prep to enjoy the solar eclipse. FoLLoW KELLy @PulseEditor 6 PULSE ■ July 2017 @ISPAPulseEditor