Flight To The Stars
I'd simply had more than I could take. News of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings quickly became overwhelming in its horror; despite an urge to see how competently broadcast media was handling the story, I couldn't cope any more. Outside was a cold,clear evening, with an impending pass by the International Space Station.
Robert Heinlein wrote of the 'clean impersonal light' of the stars---I relished the jeweled night, and its' absence of voices reciting the same horrifying details over and over. From out of the Southwest, as advertised, ISS made a slow, majestic pass across the sky. West to East. It's always so much fun to see kids' eyes light up at this sight, I thought abstractedly. And as ISS crossed the terminator into night, I saw Jupiter glowing as it ascended coming the other way, East to West. Another cool thing to show young ones---how much like a solar system the Jovian moons look as they orbit that giant world. I thought of the impromptu 'star parties' in my church's upper parking lot, well shielded from city lights by the Cascade Mountains---and young eyes looking into the Milky Way for the first time in their lives, barely beginning to know how immense the Universe is. I wonder if the young ones we lost today ever had the chance to see all that, I thought as my eyes filmed over with tears in the darkness...
Robert Heinlein wrote of the 'clean impersonal light' of the stars---I relished the jeweled night, and its' absence of voices reciting the same horrifying details over and over. From out of the Southwest, as advertised, ISS made a slow, majestic pass across the sky. West to East. It's always so much fun to see kids' eyes light up at this sight, I thought abstractedly. And as ISS crossed the terminator into night, I saw Jupiter glowing as it ascended coming the other way, East to West. Another cool thing to show young ones---how much like a solar system the Jovian moons look as they orbit that giant world. I thought of the impromptu 'star parties' in my church's upper parking lot, well shielded from city lights by the Cascade Mountains---and young eyes looking into the Milky Way for the first time in their lives, barely beginning to know how immense the Universe is. I wonder if the young ones we lost today ever had the chance to see all that, I thought as my eyes filmed over with tears in the darkness...